Peer review

"Independent review" redirects here. For the academic journal, see The Independent Review.
For other uses, see Peer review (disambiguation).

A reviewer at the American National Institutes of Health evaluating a grant proposal

Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers).[1] It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review methods are used to maintain quality standards, improve performance, and provide credibility. In academia, scholarly peer review is often used to determine an academic paper's suitability for publication. Peer review can be categorized by the type of activity and by the field or profession in which the activity occurs, e.g., medical peer review. It can also be used as a teaching tool to help students improve writing assignments.[2]

Henry Oldenburg (1619–1677) was a German-born British philosopher who is seen as the 'father' of modern scientific peer review.[3][4][5] It developed over the following centuries with, for example, the journal Nature making it standard practice in 1973. The term "peer review" was first used in the early 1970s.[6] Since 2017 a monument to peer review is at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.[7]

  1. ^ "peer review process". National Cancer Institute Dictionary of Cancer Terms. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  2. ^ Magnifico, Alecia Marie; Woodard, Rebecca; McCarthey, Sarah (1 June 2019). "Teachers as co-authors of student writing: How teachers' initiating texts influence response and revision in an online space". Computers and Composition. 52: 107–131. doi:10.1016/j.compcom.2019.01.005. ISSN 8755-4615. S2CID 86438229.
  3. ^ Hatch, Robert A. (February 1998). "The Scientific Revolution: Correspondence Networks". University of Florida. Archived from the original on 16 January 2009. Retrieved 21 August 2016.
  4. ^ Oldenburg, Henry (1665). "Epistle Dedicatory". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 1: 0. doi:10.1098/rstl.1665.0001. S2CID 186211404.
  5. ^ Boas Hall, Marie (2002). Henry Oldenburg: shaping the Royal Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bibcode:2002heol.book.....B. ISBN 978-0-19-851053-6.
  6. ^ Wills, Matthew (21 July 2024). "The History of Peer Review Is More Interesting Than You Think". JSTOR Daily. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
  7. ^ Schiermeier, Quirin (26 May 2017). "Monument to peer review unveiled in Moscow". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2017.22060. ISSN 1476-4687.