Eighth international congress on peer review in biomedical publication

A call for research Everyone has a stake in the quality of the biomedical literature. With that in mind, we announce our intention to hold the eighth international congress on peer review in biomedical publication on 10-12 September 2017, in Chicago, Illinois. As with the previous congresses, our aim will be to improve the quality and credibility of biomedical information and to help advance the efficiency, effectiveness, and equitability of dissemination of scientific information throughout the world. We announced in 1986 that we would sponsor and hold a conference to present the results of research into the process of editorial selection and improvement of scientific manuscripts, constituting peer review.1 Each of these congresses, held every four years since 1989 and organised by JAMA and The BMJ , have been devoted to three days of presentations of original research into editorial processes. A successful feature of the congresses is our insistence on giving members of the audience ample time to debate the research presented. We soon realised that the actual process whereby editors sent manuscripts to reviewers before they reached their decision was only one factor affecting the quality of published papers. The research presented at the congresses, which had started as studies of the mechanics of peer review, gradually began to concentrate on the product of the process. Biases of every sort were documented,2 …