History of peer review of leading biologically oriented journals in the early decades of the 20 th century: Shedding light on Hermann J. Muller’s Nobel Prize-winning research publication strategy

The present assessment was undertaken to develop an understanding of the occurrence and status of peer review with biological science-oriented journals in the first few decades of the 20th century. This research was centered around whether peer review would have been a realistic expectation/demand for that era for experimentally oriented biologists. The analysis indicates that the peer review process in 17 major biologically oriented journals from the United States was created principally in the early decades of the 20th century. These journals included those relating to both botanical (e.g., plant physiology, plant pathology) and zoological (e.g., biochemistry, physiology, immunology, genetics) research domains. These findings represent the first integrative evaluation of experimentally oriented biological journals concerning their historical peer-review activities. The information is based on summarized articles in the journals concerning their peer-review process, similar assessments provided by related professional societies that published the journals, as well as the preserved papers of some journal editors, which included actual peer-review documents of that era. This assessment indicates that formal peer review was commonly practiced amongst many of the leading biologically oriented US-based journals during that era. These are useful in evaluating the publication strategy of Hermann J. Muller as it relates to the avoidance of peer review regarding his novel claim to have induced gene mutations via exposure to X-rays.