This week’s podcast focuses on Peer Review Week, an annual event honouring the vital role that peer review plays in maintaining the quality of published scientific papers. But while peer review is important, it’s certainly not perfect. The quality of reviews is not always up to scratch – as the darkly comic website Shit My Reviewers Say demonstrates. The pool of peer reviewers is nowhere near as diverse as the scientific community itself. And the many helpful, conscientious reviewers aren’t getting the rewards and recognition they deserve.
Joining us to talk about these challenges (and strategies for addressing them) are Kim Eggleton, the Research Integrity and Inclusion Manager at IOP Publishing (which publishes Physics World), and Bahar Mehmani, who is Reviewer Experience Lead at the scientific publishing giant Elsevier. Kim and Bahar also discuss how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting peer review. With so much at stake for public health, the need for published scientific research to be as accurate, robust and transparent as possible has never been greater.