Peer review and the economy Flashcards
What is peer review?
The assessment of scientific work by others who are specialists in the same area to ensure that research is of the highest scientific credibility.
What is the famous example of fraudulent psychological research where peer review could have stopped it being published?
The MMR vaccine causing autism.
What are the main aims of peer review?
- To allocate research funding.
- To validate the quality and validity of research.
- To suggest amendments or improvements.
What is meant by the allocation of research funding?
It takes place to decide whether or not to award funding for a proposed research project, this may be co-ordinated with government-run schemes who have vested interest in establishing which research projects are most worthwhile.
What is meant by validating the quality and validity of research?
All elements of research are assessed for quality and accuracy: the formulation of hypothesis, methodologically chosen, statistically tested and conclusions drawn.
What does peer review involve?
All aspects of the written paper being scrutinised by a small group of usually two or three experts (‘peers’) in the particular field,
Consider a magazine you have read:
In what ways are these likely to be peer reviewed? (2 marks)
They will have experts in the fields read over the content and make sure all information is correct and credible prior to publication.
What is meant by the economy?
The state of a country or region in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services.
(Peer review) AO3 - Finding experts in the field.
Peer review requires experts from the field of research, many areas are very specialist and finding researchers to partake in peer review is hard.
(Peer review) AO3 - Already published research.
Studies that are already published are exempt to peer review, this means previous plagiarism and mistakes cannot be changed.
(Peer review) AO3 - Selective journalism.
It is a natural tendency for journal editors to publish significant results only so that they are ‘headline grabbing’.This can create a false impression of the current state of psychology due to this bias.
(Peer review) AO3 - Rivalries.
Experts in the same field of research are likely to know each other and may be rivals due to conflicting interests of study, this may lead to reviews being more ‘harsh’ than they perhaps should have been.
(Peer review) AO3 - Anonymity.
The anonymity of reviewers means that they cannot be held to scientific standards, this may also influence them if they have a rivalry!
