Peer-Review Process: Why is it significant for scholarly publications?
Peer review is a vital process in scholarly publications whereby scientific experts evaluate a manuscript and recommend whether an author’s research is suitable for publication. Peer review process ensures that quality manuscripts advancing the knowledge in the medical field are published by the medical journals. Peer review process acts as controller in promoting relevant and good science.
A theory or a claim is usually not recognized by the scientific community unless published in a peer-reviewed journal. In addition, only peer-reviewed journals are considered eligible for Impact Factors by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI).
Peer review acts as facilitation to ensure that only high-quality research is published by determining the validity, novelty, significance, and originality of the study. It intends to improve the quality of manuscripts deemed suitable for publication.
The peer-review process acts as a guarantor in preventing a lot of bad science from making it to publication. Furthermore, as the reviewers are specialists in their fields and are up to date on the most recent advancements, their expertise ensures to veto duplicate research and plagiarized articles. Additionally, peer-reviewing enables a wide range of viewpoints to be presented, thereby eliminating personal and pre-conceived notions.
Peer review is a learning process where the authors, editors, and reviewers stand to gain from it as a learning experience, consequently leading to develop new ideas in the field. This learning experience adds aesthetic value to the scientific area of research, which is a challenging aspect to measure empirically.
Articles published in peer-reviewed sources are more reliable and of a higher standard than articles published in non–peer-reviewed sources. The peer-reviewed paper represents best practices in the field and is more authoritative as a source. Articles from top-tier journals are thus likely to be the best researched and most authoritative—ideal sources to utilize as the basis of one’s argument. Journal of clinical imaging science – https://clinicalimagingscience.org, follows double blind peer review process. All journals published by Scientific Scholar, https://scientificscholar.com are peer reviewed.
Generally, Medical journals require at least two reviews to decide on the article’s acceptance for publication. Sometimes a third reviewer is required as an tie breaker. Different types of peer reviews; types and their main characteristics are given in the table below:
| Types of Peer- Reviews | Characteristics |
| Single-blind | Authors don’t know the reviewers, while reviewers know who the authors are |
| Double-blind | The identity of both reviewers and authors are blinded to each other. |
| Open peer review | Authors and reviewers know the identity of each other during or after the review process. |
| Transparent peer review | The author’s identity is revealed, while the reviewer’s identity is disclosed based on their discretion. |
| Collaborative peer review | Authors and reviewers interact/discuss with each other through a platform regarding the ways to improve the manuscript. |
Vikram Dogra, MD, FACR, FAIUM, FSRU, FSAR, FESUR, FRSM
Editor in Chief
Journal of Clinical Imaging Science
Published by Scientific Scholar
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