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Peer Review in a Nutshell is a guide for scientists preparing for a news interview about the trustworthiness of a piece of scientific research. This sort of question will often prompt an answer that refers to peer review. But this wrongly assumes that the general public fully understand the process of peer review in scientific research.
Indeed, a Mori poll commissioned by the Science Media Centre with Nature has shown that 75% of the British public have no idea what 'peer review in scientific publications' means, or can't define it correctly. Yet the vast majority (71%) of the public favour replication or the kind of scrutiny provided by peer review. We urge scientists to use the opportunity provided by a news interview to explain exactly what peer review is.
This leaflet offers some effective ways to explain peer review in a brief news interview: what it is, how it works, and why scientists rely on it so much. It refers specifically to the peer reviewing of papers for publication, rather than peer review of funding applications. The content of this guide was compiled by a working group of leading scientists, journal editors and journalists.
The full leaflet is available for download as a PDF document. To view this you will need the Acrobat Reader plugin, which can be downloaded by clicking here.
For further information about the MORI poll on peer review, please see our Press Release and the Results.
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