Can we be assured of quality scholarship in a peer review‐less environment?
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520810913954 |
| Pages | 553-556 |
| Published date | 26 September 2008 |
| Date | 26 September 2008 |
| Author | G.E. Gorman |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
EDITORIAL
Can we be assured of quality
scholarship in a peer review-less
environment?
G.E. Gorman
School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington,
Wellington, New Zealand
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this short paper is to focus on peer review in academic publishing.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses the present situation with regard to an
increasing lack of control.
Findings – The quality control aspect of peer review remains its greatest benefit to the scholarly
community, but this gate-keeping function is under threat, in various ways, from the internet.
Originality/value – The paper highlights how the loss of quality control that results from a peer
review-less environment should be of concern to the research community.
Keywords Research work, Peerreview
Paper type Viewpoint
[...] A journal paper is systematically peer-reviewed. It therefore serves as the mark of
quality and excellence in your field. This is why many academics place journal publishing at
the top of their list (Day, 2007).
Peer review is a mark of quality and excellence; this has been the case for generations,
and despite flaws in the system, it remains so today:
Although many criticisms have been leveled at various aspects of the peer review system, the
fact that it has been used almost universally in relatively unchanged form ever since 1750
strongly supports its worth (Day and Gastel, 2006).
Indeed, criticisms have been many, the two most important being:
(1) the time taken for a peer-reviewed paper to appear in print; and
(2) the element of bias in the reviewing process.
On the one hand, the electronic environment has made this process far more efficient
than in the past; on the other hand it can still take an unacceptably long time for a
reviewed paper to appear in print. But this is less the fault of the process than of the
unprecedented growth in the number of submissions to journals such as Online
Information Review, which in 2007 increased 100 percent over previous years.
We look first at the time factor. The growth in submissions to most journals places
a considerable burden on editors, on editorial boards, on reviewers and on publishers.
A greater workload results in accompanying delays in even the most efficient e-based
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1468-4527.htm
Editorial
553
Online Information Review
Vol. 32 No. 5, 2008
pp. 553-556
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/14684520810913954
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