Revise
Peer Review
Peer Review Revision
Peer Review
Scientists publish their work in journals or present it at conferences. Other scientists peer review their work to evaluate how reliable their results are.
The Purpose of Peer Review
Peer review is the evaluation of scientific work by other scientists or experts in the area of work.
The purpose of peer review is to check if the research is valid, original and significant.
If the work is valid, this means that an appropriate method was used to find evidence and the conclusions drawn are sensible.
If the work is original, this means that nobody else has carried out this work before.
If the work is significant, this means that the results of the research are important.
How to Evaluate Scientific Claims
The most reliable scientific claims are peer-reviewed. This means that lots of experts agree with the claim and so it is the best hypothesis based on the current evidence.
If a scientific claim has not been peer-reviewed it may not be reliable. This is because the method may not have been appropriate or the results and conclusions may be inaccurate.
Two factors that are useful in evaluating scientific claims are:
- Is the data repeatable? This means that the scientist who carried out the experiment could repeat it and get the same results.
- Is the data reproducible? This means that other scientists could carry out the experiment and get the same results.
Peer Review Example Questions
Question 1: What is peer review?
[2 marks]
Peer review is the evaluation of scientific work by other scientists or experts in the area of work.
Question 2: What does it mean if scientific work is not original?
[1 mark]
The same work has been carried out before.
Question 3: What does it mean if data is reproducible?
[2 marks]
Other scientists could carry out the experiment and get the same results.
