Peer review

Written evidence submitted by the
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (PR 66)

1 The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (FPM) welcomes the opportunity to submit our comments on this inquiry. We would like to make a couple of general comments on the peer review process and highlight some of the major issues in this system which we hope you will take into account during the course of your inquiry.

2 The FPM believes that overall the pre-publication peer review process does play an important role in enhancing the quality of publications. However, by the very nature of this review, it can only be based on the review and recommendation of a very small number of individuals. This part of pre-publication peer review can only be regarded as a small part of the broader peer review process, the majority of which occurs after publication when papers are critiqued more widely.

3 In terms of specific criticisms of the current pre-publication peer review process, we believe that it can be inherently biased towards the publication of positive data. This leaves important but negative results standing comparatively little chance of publication in a widely read journal.

4 We also believe that some of the reasoned objections that reviewers have to manuscripts or part of manuscripts are often not taken into consideration or even ignored by editors, in order to ensure the rapid publication of a noteworthy or controversial article.

Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine

10 March 2011