Peer review has existed in some form since ancient Greece, but the modern system developed over centuries. The earliest documented peer review process was in 9th century Syria where physician's notes would be reviewed by a medical council. However, most histories of peer review focus on developments since the 18th century in scientific journals and societies. The Royal Society of London began formally requiring peer review of papers in 1663. Electronic peer review began in the early 1990s with new online academic journals. Open access publishing aims to make research freely available to all.

1. Peer Review
Early History
SOURCES:
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html
http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/cdip/facultyresearch/PeerReview.html
http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/mcpress/plannedobsolescence/one/t
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/reviewershome.reviewers/peerreview
http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-history-of-peer-review-in-academia

2.  Think of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
◦ Search for knowledge
◦ Questions of validity of truth
 “…and then conceive some one saying to him,
that what he saw before was an illusion, but that
now, when he is approaching nearer to being and
his eye is turned towards more real
existence, he has a clearer vision…
 “And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly
dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and
held fast until he is forced into the presence of the
sun himself”
Peer Review Contemplation

3.  Thought that review by peers has been a method
of evaluation since ancient Greece
 Only recent history provides firm evidence
 854-931 Syrian physician Ishaq bin Ali al-Rahwi
first described a peer review process
◦ Physician must make notes of a patient's condition on
every visit. When the patient was cured or had died, the
notes were examined by a local medical council to decide
whether the physician had met the required standards of
medical care. If their reviews were negative, the
physician could face a lawsuit from a maltreated patient.
History of Peer Review

4.  Very little research done and seems to quote
David Kronick’s Peer Review in 18th-Century
Scientific Journalism
◦ Most texts focus on natural and social sciences, not publishing
• Society membership “required scientists to
demonstrate their bona fides in the form of
publication, experimentation, or invention in
order to be eligible for election” creating
◦ Circulation of letters among peers
◦ Reading of papers in society meetings
Royal Societies & Academies

5.  Sir Francis Bacon (and John Dee) might be credited with
the process of what became peer review in its pure and
original concept
 Knights Of The Helmet and the English branch of
the Rosicrucian Order
◦ Products of Bacon
◦ First real scientific peer review societies
◦ Kept folios and papers from research conducted and were
encouraged to share the documents with peers, so they might
review the works and be informed of progress
◦ Bacon and his ideas essentially started the Royal Society and
really the concept of the modern University
Knights of the Helmet and
Rosicrucian Order

6.  Formalized peer review in a scientific
journal
◦ Dec 1663 - Royal Society of London resolution
 “No book be printed by order of the council, which
hath not been perused and considered by two of
the council…”
◦ 1731 Royal Society of Edinburgh system
◦ 1752 Royal Society of London’s “Committee on
Papers” to oversee the review and selection of
texts for publication the journal Philosophical
Transactions
Publication Review

7. Timeline of changes
adopted by journals
Highlights from the book Editorial Peer Review: Its
Strengths and Weaknesses by
Ann C. Weller, 2001

12.  Who was first?
 CHICAGO JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL
COMPUTER SCIENCE is the first electronic
publication
◦ March 1994
 Journal of Biological Chemistry
◦ May 1995
Electronic Publishing in Science &
Medicine

13.  Molecules are three-dimensional objects which are difficult to represent in two-dimensions.
 Publication costs of color images are quite staggering and usually discouraged, and certainly
discouraged in large numbers. Color is often useful in representing a third (or fourth) dimension,
such as in electron density maps, multi-dimensional NMR, protein structures, and so forth.
 Dynamical processes are impossible to represent in print. The solution is the publication of video
and/or movies.
 With the increased cost of publication and demands to restrict article length, spectra, spectral data,
and large data files are, at best, placed in supplementary material, are presented in a highly
abbreviated form, or are deleted outright. Related to this is the ability to store online numerical
results, input data, computer output, and so forth, ready for the reuse without retyping for further
processing.
 5. With publications not limited by space, electronic journals can include comments, criticisms, and
author replies to all published manuscripts. This interactive communication between authors and
readership allows for points to be clarified, extensions to be drawn, and collaborations to be born.
Electronic journals will be able to facilitate these exchanges, thereby enhancing the impact of these
new publications.
Why?

14. Open Access publication

15.  Open Access stands for unrestricted access and unrestricted reuse. Here’s why that
matters.
 Most publishers own the rights to the articles in their journals. Anyone who wants to
read the articles must pay to access them. Anyone who wants to use the articles in
any way must obtain permission from the publisher and is often required to pay an
additional fee.
 Although many researchers can access the journals they need via their institution
and think that their access in free, in reality it is not. The institution has often been
involved in lengthy negotiations around the price of their site license, and re-use of
this content is limited.
 Paying for access to content makes sense in the world of print publishing, where
providing content to each new reader requires the production of an additional copy,
but online it makes much less sense to charge for content when it is possible to
provide access to all readers anywhere in the world.
 All PLoS content is published under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-
BY), which was developed to facilitate open access – namely, free immediate access
to, and unrestricted reuse of, original works of all types. Under this license, authors
agree to make articles legally available for reuse, without permission or fees, for
virtually any purpose. Anyone may copy, distribute, or reuse these articles, as long
as the author and original source are properly cited. Additionally, the journal
platform that PLoS uses to publish research articles is Open Source.
http://www.plos.org/about/open-access/

16.  Accelerated discovery. With open access,
researchers can read and build on the findings of
others without restriction.
 Public enrichment. Much scientific and medical
research is paid for with public funds. Open
access allows taxpayers to see the results of
their investment.
 Improved education. Open access means that
teachers and their students have access to the
latest research findings throughout the world.
Benefits of OA Research

17. Examples

18.  HighWire Press is the largest archive
of free full-text science on Earth! As of
2/29/12, we are assisting in the online
publication of 2,127,016 free full-text
articles and 6,910,018 total articles.
There are 36 sites with free trial periods,
and 51 completely free sites. 273 sites
have free back issues, and 1320 sites
have pay per view!
Hirewire

19.  PubMed Central® (PMC) is a free archive of
biomedical and life sciences journal literature
at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's
National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM). In
keeping with NLM’s legislative mandate to
collect and preserve the biomedical
literature, PMC serves as a digital
counterpart to NLM’s extensive print journal
collection. Launched in February 2000, PMC
was developed and is managed by NLM’s
National Center for Biotechnology
Information (NCBI).
PubMed Central

20.  Ensures high visibility and maximum exposure for your
work - anyone with online access can read your article.
 The Open Access in the developing world micro site
provides a news platform for all open access developments
in lower-income countries.
 The site also details BioMed Central's developing world
initiatives which look to increase the visibility and output of
scientific research from across Africa and the wider
developing world such as our waiver fund and Foundation
Membership.
BioMed Central