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September 28, 2021 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today. For other up-to-the-minute news, check out ITI’s Twitter account: @ITINewsBreaks. CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.

CCC Looks at the Intricacies of Peer Review

“Peer Review, a Critical Step in Scholarly & Scientific Publishing,” from Sept. 21, states, “Scientific peer review may be thought of as something a lot like the QA [quality assurance] component of the software development process—that is, it is essentially the QA step for the production of high-quality articles which are published in high quality journals. … I learned that the STM Organization (in cooperation with NISO) has a pilot project underway, assessing a potentially standard Peer Review Taxonomy. … There are many aspects of peer review—e.g., internal versus external—that can be clarified by implementing a controlled vocabulary and concept hierarchy.”

“Understanding the Role of Preprints & Postprints & The Version of Record,” from Sept. 22, shares, “The purpose of postprints … is to ensure that the research field has access to … ‘good’ research—‘good’ because it has been reviewed and accepted—ahead of publication, which may be a year or more away. It also gives the author and her institution a version that is ‘theirs’ and technically separate from the Version of Record, to which some or all copyright rights will likely have been conveyed to the publisher. … Both preprints and postprints can help advance more efficient scholarly communication and broader access to scientific outputs, both of which are core goals of the Open Access Movement. Comments and criticism of preprints, in particular, may serve as an informal supplement to editorial peer review.”

“Research Results, Replicability, & Retractions,” from Sept. 23, explains, “In this post, I’m focusing on the Why and the How of replication studies. At the end of this post I’ll wrap up with a brief look at retractions, the ultimate ‘undo’ button for papers. Overall, they make up the parts of the standard research and reporting process aimed at improving the quality and reliability of research outputs. The effort put into them—which can be considerable—serves to improve the scientific record, which in turn helps all of us.”