Summary of peer review

From Paul Courant, an excellent summary of the many kinds of formal and informal peer review; and the role(s) of peer review in academia.

Courant makes the excellent point that open access, alternative publishing mechanisms, and ready availability of working papers will not diminish the amount nor the importance of peer review as a constant part of a scholars’ work: scholars “could no more NOT provide “peer review” then they could give up reading and writing. Peer review is part and parcel of what serious scholars do.”

He also argues that formal peer review of manuscripts submitted to academic journals is only a small part of the peer review scholars do; and that the rise of informal peer review mechanisms is a good thing.