Celebrate Peer Review Week

Peer Review Week is an annual global event that puts a spotlight on peer review and its essential role in maintaining scientific quality. This year, Peer Review Week is dedicated to the theme of Trust in Peer Review.

Peer review has been a formal part of scientific communication since the publication of scientific journals more than 300 years ago. It validates and improves the quality of published research through the evaluation of scientific and academic work by others in the field. This system of checks and balances play a pivotal role in scholarly communication that helps build a body of scientific knowledge and trust in research.

With the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of reliable scholarly publications has been more pressing than ever. Retractions of scientific papers from respected medical journals, such as the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, have drawn significant attention to the potential damage of flawed studies and negligent peer review to public trust and misinformation. Maintaining trust in the peer review decision-making process is paramount if we want to solve pressing public health issues.

How can we foster trust in the peer review process?

Join the Peer Review Week activities to engage with this question and explore ways of increasing transparency in peer review.

You can participate by:

• Exploring the toolkit of resources on the Peer Review Week website
• Following the conversation on Twitter at #PeerRevWeek20
• Registering for Lane Library’s new class “Where to Publish – Evaluating the Fit, Impact, and Quality of Academic Journals” on October 1^st from 12:00 PM to 12:45 PM.

Have questions about scholarly publishing or peer review? Contact your Research Communications Librarian Lily Ren.