The Challenges of Peer Review (Presentation Slides)

The Challenges of Peer Review: An Ethical Approach Richard Easby and Eleanor Smith, Alliance of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science Societies (ACSESS)

In scientific and scholarly publishing, peer-review must set the standard for validating and confirming key findings in scientific research. At its core, the scientific peer review process brings credibility, ensures relevance, and broadens the perspectives of the original researchers and the readers of the publication. It is a requirement of any scientific scholarly journal to create and maintain a robust peer-review process that minimizes conflicts of interest and ensures the research is sound and presents meaningful contributions to scientific discourse. Ethical considerations include identifying and avoiding perceived or real bias, identifying conflicts of interest, identifying author misconduct such as plagiarism, confidentiality, ensuring quality, identifying and removing reviewers who work for paper mills, and diversifying and expanding the pool of reviewers.

Richard Easby is a seasoned publishing professional with 35 years of experience working in the industry. He is currently the program manager for content strategy at ACSESS. He oversees book publishing, professional development workshops, and the peer review mentorship program. His expertise spans editorial, production, and design. Previously, he worked for the National Geographic Society.

Eleanor Smith is an editor with 8 years of experience in scholarly publishing and is currently the journal program manager for 4 of the 13 scientific journals published by ACSESS (Alliance of Crop, Soil, and Environmental Science Societies). Her background also includes academic instruction in writing, research, and peer-review at George Mason University and the University of Maryland.