Science and Engineering Ethics

, Volume 14, Issue 3, pp 305–310 | Cite as

Perceptions of Ethical Problems with Scientific Journal Peer Review: An Exploratory Study

  • David B. Resnik
  • Christina Gutierrez-Ford
  • Shyamal Peddada
Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

This article reports the results of an anonymous survey of researchers at a government research institution concerning their perceptions about ethical problems with journal peer review. Incompetent review was the most common ethical problem reported by the respondents, with 61.8% (SE = 3.3%) claiming to have experienced this at some point during peer review. Bias (50.5%, SE = 3.4%) was the next most common problem. About 22.7% (SE = 2.8%) of respondents said that a reviewer had required them to include unnecessary references to his/her publication(s), 17.7% (SE = 2.6%) said that comments from reviewers had included personal attacks, and 9.6% (SE = 2.0%) stated that reviewers had delayed publication to publish a paper on the same topic. Two of the most serious violations of peer review ethics, breach of confidentiality (6.8%, SE = 1.7%) and using ideas, data, or methods without permission (5%, SE = 1.5%) were perceived less often than the other problems. We recommend that other investigators follow up on our exploratory research with additional studies on the ethics of peer review.

Keywords

Journal peer review Ethics Bias Reform 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the intramural program of the NIEHS/NIH. It does not represent the views of the NIEHS or NIH. We are grateful to Grace Kissling for helpful comments and suggestions.

Author Contributions: DBR was involved in the conception and design of this study, data collection, data interpretation, and drafting and editing the manuscript. CGF helped with recording and analyzing data and drafting and editing the manuscript. SP analyzed and interpreted data and help to draft and edit the manuscript.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  • David B. Resnik
    • 1
  • Christina Gutierrez-Ford
    • 1
  • Shyamal Peddada
    • 1
  1. 1.NIEHS/NIHResearch Triangle ParkUSA

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