{"id":5528,"date":"2019-01-03T09:48:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T09:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/?p=5528"},"modified":"2019-01-07T13:11:44","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T13:11:44","slug":"peer-review-a-step-on-the-road-to-assurance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/2019\/01\/03\/peer-review-a-step-on-the-road-to-assurance\/","title":{"rendered":"Peer review: a step on the road to assurance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"5530\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/2019\/01\/03\/peer-review-a-step-on-the-road-to-assurance\/team-and-leadership\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Peer-review-road-to-assurance.jpg?fit=718%2C487&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"718,487\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Getty Images\/iStockphoto&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Guide, Human Hand, Running, Leadership, Illustration&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Team and leadership&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Team and leadership\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Guide, Human Hand, Running, Leadership, Illustration&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Peer-review-road-to-assurance.jpg?fit=300%2C203&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Peer-review-road-to-assurance.jpg?fit=718%2C487&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5530\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Peer-review-road-to-assurance.jpg?resize=718%2C487&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Team and leadership\" width=\"718\" height=\"487\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Peer-review-road-to-assurance.jpg?w=718&amp;ssl=1 718w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Peer-review-road-to-assurance.jpg?resize=300%2C203&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Peer-review-road-to-assurance.jpg?resize=700%2C476&amp;ssl=1 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 718px) 100vw, 718px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Peer review can be a source of <a href=\"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/2017\/05\/17\/a-frustrated-scientists-views-on-peer-review\/\">frustration<\/a> among researchers, potentially delaying publication and or biasing editorial decisions. However, in a recent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/11\/05\/upshot\/peer-review-the-worst-way-to-judge-research-except-for-all-the-others.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">article<\/a> published by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The New York Times<\/a>, Professor Aaron E. Carroll, an editor at <a href=\"https:\/\/jamanetwork.com\/journals\/jamapediatrics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>JAMA Pediatrics<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>argues that<em>, <\/em>\u201cThrowing out the system \u2014 which deems whether research is robust and worth being published \u2014 would do more harm than good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Professor Carroll takes a look at the system\u2019s weaknesses and provides some ideas for how to improve peer review. He acknowledges that reviewers often receive no specific training and may be overworked. He also highlights that peer review is not always consistent, drawing attention to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/behavioral-and-brain-sciences\/article\/peerreview-practices-of-psychological-journals-the-fate-of-published-articles-submitted-again\/AFE650EB49A6B17992493DE5E49E4431\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">study<\/a> published in 1982, in which 8 out of 12 previously published papers were rejected when resubmitted to the same journals 18\u201332 months later. He suggests that innovative research may face challenges surviving peer review and discusses the various biases that can occur during the review process, including <a href=\"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/2017\/11\/16\/the-networking-effect-how-author-networks-can-cause-gender-bias-in-peer-review\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gender bias<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Carroll lists formal training, payment and incentives for reviewers, blinded peer review and public judgement of preprints as just some ideas for improving the system. He goes on to explain how the submission process is handled at <em>JAMA Pediatrics<\/em>, including how the journal follows the subsequent outcomes for rejected papers, as a way of reviewing and checking their own processes. Ultimately, he argues that we need to change how peer review is regarded, with it (and publication) as \u201csteps on the road to assurance, not a final stamp of approval\u201d. Indeed, studies have noted the <a href=\"http:\/\/annals.org\/aim\/article-abstract\/707494\/manuscript-quality-before-after-peer-review-editing-annals-internal-medicine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">value of peer review<\/a> and its importance in improving the aspects of medical research that readers rely on most heavily to evaluate published findings, including the discussion of study limitations, generalisations, and use of confidence intervals. The onus may then be on the research community to conduct continued appraisal of the literature through post-publication peer-review.<\/p>\n<div data-opinionstage-embed-url=\"https:\/\/www.opinionstage.com\/api\/v1\/polls\/2533218\/code.json?width=\" style=\"display: none; visibility: hidden;\"><\/div>\n<p>\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n<p>Summary by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aspire-scientific.com\/#team_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Louise Niven DPhil, CMPP<\/a> from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aspire-scientific.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aspire Scientific<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n<p>With thanks to our sponsors, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aspire-scientific.com\/\">Aspire Scientific Ltd<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.networkpharma.com\/\">NetworkPharma Ltd<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an article published in The New York Times, Professor Aaron E. Carroll critiques the peer review system and provides a number of suggestions for improvements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"#Peerreview: a step on the path to assurance @NYTimes #PubPlan #medcomms #ISMPP #EMWA ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_publicize_connection_overrides":[],"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[115816],"tags":[343162388,343162435,343162426],"class_list":["post-5528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-peer-review","tag-gender-bias","tag-post-publication-peer-review","tag-preprint","post-has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Peer-review-road-to-assurance.jpg?fit=718%2C487&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Yk5l-1ra","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5528"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5533,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5528\/revisions\/5533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepublicationplan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}