Science Policy UK: Parliamentary inquiry into peer review

The UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has just launched an inquiry into peer review with a deadline for evidence of 10 March 2011. This is regularly raised in the context of research funding - RCUK and RAE - but this seems to be linked in part to the controversy on climate science, although the scope is very much wider. /...more

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The inquiry is into "the operation and effectiveness of the peer review process used to examine and validate scientific results and papers prior to publication" and is interested in particular in:

1. the strengths and weaknesses of peer review as a quality control mechanism for scientists, publishers and the public;measures to strengthen peer review;
2. the value and use of peer reviewed science on advancing and testing scientific knowledge;
3. the value and use of peer reviewed science in informing public debate;
4. the extent to which peer review varies between scientific disciplines and between countries across the world;
5. the processes by which reviewers with the requisite skills and knowledge are identified, in particular as the volume of multi-disciplinary research increases;
6. the impact of IT and greater use of online resources on the peer review process; and
7. possible alternatives to peer review
   

There will obviously be a lot of discussion on the overall approach in funding and publication, where there has been a lot of change in the past decade - peer review colleges, research assessment in HE, electronic publication and pre-publication, and so on.  Would also be interesting to think about the way in which peer review operates into policy areas - the IPCC and possible development of IPBES will be interesting, where there is development of expert consensus for large assessment exercises that involve wide multidisciplinary groupings.