What's up with peer review: The future of peer review in policy, research and public debates.

What is the future of peer review? What does it do for science and what does the scientific community want it to do? Should it detect fraud and misconduct? Does it illuminate good ideas or shut them down? Does it help journalists report the status and quality of research? Why do some researchers do their bit and others make excuses? And why are all these questions important not just to journal editors, but to policy makers and the public? In September 2009 Sense About Science in association with Elsevier are publishing the latest results from worldwide survey of 100,000 scientists’ preoccupations and preconceptions as both authors and reviewers of scientific papers. The survey will explore whether researchers attitudes to peer review are changing and whether there is a gap between their perception of peer review and the reality of what it can do. These insights will provide the baseline for discussions on how the system needs to evolve to cope with challenges it faces such as the expansion of the international research community, the issues of fraud, the development of open access and the role peer review plays in science policy and public debates about the quality of science. In this session a panel will respond to these latest results and discuss what the future for peer review is and what the international community can do to address the challenges facing peer review.