title: Ethics of reviewing scientific publications.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The approval or rejection of scientific publications can have important consequences for scientific knowledge, so considerable responsibility lies on those who have to assess or review them. Today it seems that the peer review process, far from being considered an outdated system to be abandoned, is experiencing a new upturn.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This article proposes criteria for the conduct of reviewers and of those who select them. While commenting on new emerging models, it provides practical recommendations for improving the peer-review system, like strengthening the role of guidelines and training and supporting reviewers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The process of peer review is changing, it is getting more open and collaborative, but those same ethical principles which guided it from its very origin should remain untouched and be firmly consolidated. The paper highlights how the ethics of reviewing scientific publications is needed now more than ever, in particular with regard to competence, conflict of interest, willingness to discuss decisions, complete transparency and integrity.
authors.affiliation: Publishing Unit, Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italian National Institute of Health), Viale Regina Elena 299, I-00161 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: federica.napolitani@iss.it.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Napolitani
authors.affiliation: Bioethics Unit, Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italian National Institute of Health), Viale Regina Elena 299, I-00161 Rome, Italy. Electronic address: carlo.petrini@iss.it.
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Petrini
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Via La Masa 19, I-20156 Milan, Italy. Electronic address: silvio.garattini@marionegri.it.
authors.forename: Silvio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Garattini
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D010380:Peer Review / Q000941:ethics* / Q000592:standards*; D011642:Publications / Q000592:standards
keywords: Ethics; Peer-review; Scientific research