Peer review, in which papers written by scientists and submitted to scholarly journals are reviewed by two or three other experts in the field before being published (or rejected), is the gold-standard for evaluating science. However, its effectiveness in rapidly disseminating good science and eliminating bad has recently come under the scanner. Gender, institutional affiliation and other human fallibilities introduce unwelcome biases in the peer-review process, further raising uncomfortable questions on the very foundation of scholarly communication. In light of these concerns, where does scholarly communication - especially in the life and biomedical sciences - stand today? In the pre-internet era, journal-mediated limited peer-review was certainly better than nothing. Print space was (and is) a premium and journals had to find ways to be selective about what gets shown to the world. Peer review is a way to ensure that they publish only what they would like to publish and so establish their reputation as a purveyor of gourmet science.
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