Peer Review

Charleston Briefings: Trending Topics for Information Professionals is a thought-provoking series of brief books concerning innovation in the sphere of libraries, publishing, and technology in scholarly communication. The briefings, growing out of the vital conversations characteristic of the Charleston Conference and Against the Grain, will offer valuable insights into the trends shaping our professional lives and the institutions in which we work. The Charleston Briefings are written by authorities who provide an effective, readable overview of their topics-not an academic monograph. The intended audience is busy nonspecialist readers who want to be informed concerning important issues in our industry in an accessible and timely manner. Peer review is an essential aspect of scientific publishing. Yet, how familiar are most of us with the process of peer review? How long has peer review been considered a cornerstone of scientific publishing and what is it meant to accomplish? With so many changes in the realm of scholarly communication in the last twenty years, has the status of peer review also been challenged? Is peer review obsolete? These questions are fundamental to Peer Review: Reform and Renewal in Scientific Publishing. Publishers, researchers, librarians, vendors in the information sphere, and those who are passionate about science will all find much to interest them in this work.