Peer review

Question 1

What is peer review?

Answer 1

• Peer review is the assessment of scientific work by experts in the same field , it is done to make sure that all the research intended to be published is of high quality.

Question 2

What are the main purpose of peer review?

Answer 2

• To know which research is worthwhile hence funding can be allocated to it.
• To validate the relevance and quality of research , this is important to prevent fraudulent research from being released to public.(MMR vaccine linked to Autism)
• To suggest possible improvements of research study.

Question 3

What are the limitations of peer review?

Answer 3

• Not always be objective - due to personal bias e,g peer reviewers are particularly critical of a study because they have been influenced by personal feelings or opinions.

Question 4

How does blinding aid bias ?

Answer 4

• Single-blind procedure - the author doesnt know who the peers are
• Double- blind trial - The author doesnt know who the peers are and the peers dont know who the authors are.

Question 5

How is blinding problematic ? A03

Answer 5

• Authors can be identified by writing style and they know they are anonymous and can still the ideas or be unessccessarily harsh.

Question 6

Explain publication bias A03

Answer 6

• Publication bias towards publishing positive findings , important negative results never being published for other scientists.