Peer Review

A researcher submits an article to a journal. The choice of the journal may be determined by the journal’s audience or prestige

The journal selects two or more appropriate experts (psychologists working in a similar field) to peer review the article without payment. The peer reviewers assess the methods and designs used, the originality of the findings, the validity of the original research findings and its content, structure and language

Feedback from the reviewer determines whether the article is accepted. The article may be: Accepted as it is, accepted with revisions, sent back to the author to revise and re-submit or rejected without the possibility of submission

The editor makes the final decision on whether to accept or reject the research report based on the reviewer’s comments/ recommendations

Peer review is important because it prevents faulty data from entering the public domain, and provides a way of checking the validity of findings and the quality of the methodology. It is used to assess the research rating of university departments

Peer reviews may be ideal, but there are many problems in practice. For example, it slows publication down and may prevent unusual, new work from being published. Some reviewers might use it to prevent competing researchers from publishing work

Some people doubt whether peer review can really prevent the publication of fraudulent research

The advent of the Internet means that a lot of research and the academic comment is being published without official peer reviews than before, though systems are evolving on the Internet where everyone really has a chance to offer their opinions and police the quality of research