Peer Review in Health Sciences

doi:10.1136/bmj.320.7248.1546

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Hervé Maisonneuve, Public Health Department

University of Paris

Fiona Godlee, Tom Jefferson

BMJ Books, £30, pp 286 ISBN 0 7279 1181 3

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Why do we still use a system to select manuscripts for publication and grant applications that is biased and has many drawbacks? Because we have no alternative; we want a system that has an impact on academic careers even if its methodology is poor. Publishing everything without review is desirable to some but unacceptable to many. A middle solution is currently envisaged on the internet, where peer-reviewed articles could be followed by reviewers' criticisms, the authors' answers, and even readers' comments.

Most of us would agree that we need a formal peer …