Developing expertise in scientific review is a service to your peers and gives you the means to impact the growth of scientific knowledge and quality of patient care. However, most reviewers are not given formal training or written guidelines. This was confirmed by the 22 major medical societies that were contacted in writing during the preparation of this project, regarding instructional information they provide reviewers of abstracts, manuscripts, and journals.
The Section of Emergency Medicine Research undertook this project to produce a basic introductory manual on how to perform scientific peer reviews. It is geared toward physicians being asked for the first time to review abstracts, manuscripts or grants. Even experienced reviewers are likely to benefit from the insights provided within these chapters.
This manual addresses specific areas of biomedical peer review including abstracts, manuscripts, and grants. Critical issues such as ethics and statistics are given additional emphasis in specific chapters. The fundamentals needed to perform critical scientific review are outlined.
