Peer Review and Scientific Assessment: A Handbook for Funding Organizations, Regulatory Agencies, and Editors

Peer review and Scientific Assessment are recognized as vital elements in scientific decisions, particularly scientific publishing, research funding, and regulatory science. This handbook guides the reader through all of the important aspects of peer review and explains how they are applied in the design and operation of successful review and assessment programs. Key topics include the selection of reviewers, identifying and mitigating conflicts of interest, and developing review criteria. The more general question of how scientific claims can be evaluated and controversies resolved is also considered in an explanation of the Best Available Science concept.

• Includes generic peer review criteria (any organization can expand these to develop project-specific criteria)
• Provides clear criteria for identifying and mitigating conflict of interest (allows for improvement in selection of peer reviewers)
• Explains importance of stakeholder participation in the decision process and the various approaches for reaching different categories of stakeholders and responding to their comments

Alan Moghissi, Betty Love, and Sorin Straja have been actively involved in all aspects of peer review:

• Having awarded grants
• Having been recipients of awarded grants
• Having served on peer review panels
• Having organized peer reviews
• Having published papers in peer-reviewed journals
• Having served as editors of scientific journals
• Having extensive experience in regulatory science activities