Nesrhten……….

Peer review is the safe guard of scientific publications and is supposed to ensure the quality of the published research, upholding the scientific standards. But in an article translated from the Danish web-site videnskap.dk and published on the Norwegian web-site forskning.no there are some challenges in the system of peer review that may pose a threath on the scientific standards.

The article points out the following issues that may need to be adressed; the reviews may not be objective but be gouverned by the reviewers personal attitudes and professional interests. The article also points out that many publications are sceptical new theories, and favor research supporting established theories.

The authors of this article also claims that the peer review system is not were effective in discovering scientific cheating, and the investigating process will in this system often be time consuming. Related to this it is also problematic for editors and reviewers to have a complete overview of published research, and have difficulties in determining if the research submitted for publications is bringing in new elements.

The article sums up the possible challenges of peer reviews in the fact that it often is the only quality control that published research goes through. And these elements should always be present when reading and evaluating published research.