7,074 research outputs found
Peer Review for Journals: Evidence on Quality Control, Fairness, and Innovation
No full textI reviewed the published empirical evidence concerning journal peer review, which consisted of 68 papers, all but three published since 1975. Peer review improves quality, but its use to screen papers has met with limited success. Current procedures to assure quality and fairness seem to discourage scientific advancement, especially important innovations, because findings that conflict with current beliefs are often judged to have defects. Editors can use procedures to encourage the publication of papers with innovative findings such as invited papers, early-acceptance procedures, author nominations of reviewers, results-blind reviews, structured rating sheets, open peer review, and, in particular, electronic publication. Some journals are currently using these procedures. The basic principle behind the proposals is to change the decision from whether to publish a paper to how to publish itpeer review, journals, publications
Workshop on the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) and peer review journals in Europe : a report
No full textA workshop on the Open Archives Initiative and Peer Review Journals in Europe was held at CERN, in Geneva, from March 22nd to 24th. The purpose of this workshop was to mobilise a group of European scientists and librarians who want to play an active role in organizing a self-managed system for electronic scholarly communication. Such a system should be compliant with the technical standards proposed by the Open Archives Initiative (OAI). The immediate deployment of OAI-compliant e-print repositories was a concrete objective of the workshop. The workshop had a second (exploratory) objective, related to the certification of writings submitted to archives
The Church and peer review: was “peer” review fairer, more honest then than now?
No full textThe traditional thought regarding peer review tends to be that it started with the establishment of the academy, sometime around 1650. It is a reasonable presumption that to have peer review one needs first to have peers. However, the actual review of works certainly occurred long before 1650. Of some importance is the nature of that review that took place prior to the appearance of universities in Bologna and Paris. The standard (and misapplied) logic is that the Church wielded a heavy hand on all publishing, acting as a restraint on inappropriate works prior to their publication. This is not wholly true, however. The Church is best known for its suppression of works post-publication. In a way, it acted as a critic, offering its advice to authors who it found proposed errant ideas and suggesting they might wish to recant and return to good standing. This is interesting when cast in today's peer-review environment. The author suggests that much can be learned from the Church's method of dealing with scholarship, especially in a world of e-reserves. Should we ditch the traditional peer-review method and go back to a publish-then-evaluate system used by the Holy See? In large part, the author argues that unless the academy is willing to cure the perceived ills of peer review and do so soon, the question will be answered in the affirmative, with or without our agreement
Peer Networking and Community Change: Improving Foundation Practice
No full text· This article brings together the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 15 years of experience with peer networking— examining through two research studies the process of peer networking and its impact, both with community-based and funder groups.
· Peer networking helps people with common interests to exchange information, disseminate good practices, and build a leadership structure for work they do together, such as a community change initiative.
· Casey’s research identified 10 good practices for effective peer networking, as well as 10 challenges that can affect its success; a four-level model was created to provide context for these findings.
· The research indicates that peer networking can have significant impact for communities and in meeting philanthropic goals, but it is costly and must be carefully structured if it is to be successful.
· Casey is working to synthesize its peer networking practices into a more strategic framework, and other foundations might use some of its lessons learned to enhance their own practices in this area
Scholar as e-publisher: the future role of [anonymous] peer review within online publishing
No full textThe advent of online journals has opened a vast opportunity for small journals published by a variety of institutions. It also has given scholars many more options, from more general publications to far more journals addressing very narrowly defined subjects, and it suggests that in the near future the role of online journals and peer review will radically change. The author proposes roles for user-generated content and university libraries in the evaluation and publication of research
Results of a pilot randomised controlled trial to measure the clinical and cost effectiveness of peer support in increasing hope and quality of life in mental health patients discharged from hospital in the UK
No full textBackground
Mental health patients can feel anxious about losing the support of staff and patients when discharged from hospital and often discontinue treatment, experience relapse and readmission to hospital, and sometimes attempt suicide. The benefits of peer support in mental health services have been identified in a number of studies with some suggesting clinical and economic gains in patients being discharged.
Methods
This pilot randomised controlled trial with economic evaluation aimed to explore whether peer support in addition to usual aftercare for patients during the transition from hospital to home would increase hope, reduce loneliness, improve quality of life and show cost effectiveness compared with patients receiving usual aftercare only, with follow-up at one and three-months post-discharge.
Results
A total of 46 service users were recruited to the study; 23 receiving peer support and 23 in the care-as-usual arm. While this pilot trial found no statistically significant benefits for peer support on the primary or secondary outcome measures, there is an indication that hope may be further increased in those in receipt of peer support. The total cost per case for the peer support arm of the study was £2154 compared to £1922 for the control arm. The mean difference between costs was minimal and not statistically significant. However, further analyses demonstrated that peer support has a reasonably high probability of being more cost effective for a modest positive change in the measure of hopelessness. Challenges faced in recruitment and follow-up are explored alongside limitations in the delivery of peer support.
Conclusions
The findings suggest there is merit in conducting further research on peer support in the transition from hospital to home consideration should be applied to the nature of the patient population to whom support is offered; the length and frequency of support provided; and the contact between peer supporters and mental health staff. There is no conclusive evidence to support the cost effectiveness of providing peer support, but neither was it proven a costly intervention to deliver. The findings support an argument for a larger scale trial of peer support as an adjunct to existing services
Peer Review statements from 2014 Author survey
No full text<p>A summary of the responses to the Agree/Disagree statements on peer review that were asked in the 2014 Author Insights survey</p
Open Access to Peer-Reviewed Research through Author/Institution Self-Archiving: Maximizing Research Impact by Maximizing Online Access
No full textAll refereed journals will soon be available online; most of them already are. This means that anyone will be able to access them from any networked desk-top. The literature will all be interconnected by citation, author, and keyword/subject links, allowing for unheard-of power and ease of access and navigability. Successive drafts of pre-refereeing preprints will be linked to the official refereed draft, as well as to any subsequent corrections, revisions, updates, comments, responses, and underlying empirical databases, all enhancing the self-correctiveness, interactivity and productivity of scholarly and scientific research and communication in remarkable new ways. New scientometric indicators of digital impact are also emerging <http://opcit.eprints.org> to chart the online course of knowledge. But there is still one last frontier to cross before science reaches the optimal and the inevitable: Just as there is no longer any need for research or researchers to be constrained by the access-blocking restrictions of paper distribution, there is no longer any need to be constrained by the impact-blocking financial fire-walls of Subscription/Site-License/Pay-Per-View (S/L/P) tolls for this give-away literature. Its author/researchers have always donated their research reports for free (and its referee/researchers have refereed for free), with the sole goal of maximizing their impact on subsequent research (by accessing the eyes and minds of fellow-researchers, present and future) and hence on society. Generic (OAi-compliant) software is now available free so that institutions can immediately create Eprint Archives in which their authors can self-archive all their refereed papers for free for all forever <http://www.eprints.org/>. These interoperable Open Archives <http://www.openarchives.org> will then be harvested into global, jointly searchable "virtual archives" (e.g., <http://arc.cs.odu.edu/>). "Scholarly Skywriting" in this PostGutenberg Galaxy will be dramatically (and measurably) more interactive and productive, spawning its own new digital metrics of productivity and impact, allowing for an online "embryology of knowledge.
A peer mediation program piloted in the fourth grade at Black Earth Elementary School
No full textPlan BDespite concerns about increasing violence by educational officials, parents, and community members, most school programs do not provide students specific educational experiences that facilitate adequate personal and social development. Some schools, nationally, have addressed this need by offering educational programs teaching conflict resolution skills through peer mediation. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a peer mediation program piloted in a fourth grade population would encourage students to use conflict resolution skills to resolve disputes peacefully. The model used is called the Peers in Education Addressing Conflict Effectively (PEACE) Program, whose goal is to teach appropriate conflict resolution skills, and decrease hostility in the school environment.
Fifteen mediators, selected by their peers, were taught the PEACE program skills of conflict resolution. These skills include communication, reflective listening, identifying feelings and problem solving. The mediators were trained by the author and another staff member who had been trained in the PEACE Program.
The time frame of the study was from January 1999 to January 2000. Information was gathered through questionnaires given to peer mediators, a questionnaire answered by the fourth grade population and fourth grade teachers, anecdotal records and observations from participating teachers and the school principal. Results of the study did not show a reduction in antisocial behavior or reduced violence in the school. The findings did suggest that the mediators learned the conflict resolution skills, but because of the time schedule, opportunities to practice and use them were limited. Students and teachers did demonstrate positive interest in the program; students wanted to become trained mediators and teachers and administrators supported the concept of peaceful problem-solving. Data collected from the study will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program, identifying strengths and weaknesses for future program implementations
Exploratory talk within collaborative small groups in mathematics
No full textThis report describes one aspect of a wider research study on exploratory talk within collaborative small groups in secondary mathematics lessons. It outlines students’ views of using collaborative activity to learn mathematics. The fuller research study explores the extent to which exploratory talk occurs in collaborative peer groups in secondary mathematics classrooms
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