Appendix IV: Alternative Models of Peer Review

The peer-review process described in this book is usually considered the ‘traditional’ model and is still the one used by the great majority of scientific journals. Variations of this model and new systems have been suggested, and a number have been tried. This appendix gives a brief description of some of these and provides details of where interested readers can go to find out more. Readers are also directed to the 22 articles published online in 2006 by the journal Nature on various aspects of editorial peer review to accompany its peer-review trial (see this appendix, page 279) – links to all the articles can be found at www.nature.com/nature/peerreview/debate/index.html.