title: Peer review as professional responsibility: a quality control system only as good as the participants.
abstract: The peer-review process remains a central part of the value and validity of scientific and technical publishing and proposal assessment. The peer review mechanism has many delicate components that should function most professionally and effectively for best results. An important central tenet is that all who seek to publish should freely avail themselves to review a commensurate load, considering many elements of professional conduct, ethics and responsibility in this process. The review itself should provide timely, unbiased, quality feedback to improve contributions to the system reviewers are serving. An additional component involves follow-on policing of published literature to assert its validity through consensus and validation. This short essay examines our collective duties as contributors, reviewers, and readers to the integrity and safekeeping of this essential quality control process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Room 301, 30 South 2000 East, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-5820, USA. david.grainger@utah.edu
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Grainger
mesh_terms: D001319:Authorship; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000639:trends; D035081:Editorial Policies; D006801:Humans; D017712:Peer Review, Research; D011643:Publishing; D011786:Quality Control; D012941:Social Responsibility
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials