"Peer-Review" is an integral part of scholarly communication - before a research paper someone has written can be published...a peer-reviewed journal requires it to be reviewed and critiqued, usually by three other researchers the same field.

If the reviewers' general opinion is that the research was done properly, the conclusions drawn by the researcher(s) were reasonable, it may be published fairly quickly. Other times reviewers may recommend that the author(s) clarify their article's writing or conclusions, or even that they think a few additional experiments are needed to strengthen their evidence and conclusions, before it will be ready to be published.

In this way, peer-review is a built-in 'quality control' method in research, a type of 'gatekeeping' system - experts judging the work of other experts.

"Peer review is the system used to assess the quality of a manuscript before it is published. Independent researchers in the relevant research area assess submitted manuscripts for originality, validity and significance to help editors determine whether a manuscript should be published in their journal."

Some common types of peer review are:

• Single-blind: Reviewers know who the authors are, but the authors don't know who reviewed them
• Double-blind: Reviewers are not aware of the authors of the manuscript, authors do not know who reviewed them
• Open Peer: Reviewers know the authors' identities, authors know the reviewers' identities.

From: Peer review process. (n.d.). Retrieved January 8, 2024, from https://www.biomedcentral.com/getpublished/peer-review-process