Is the Peer Review Journal Dead? Is the Peer Review Journal Dead?

Professor Tony BrownSenior Staff Specialist

Department of Emergency Medicine

Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital

Competing Interests Declaration Competing Interests Declaration

Professor Tony Brown Educational / research funding:

Astra Zeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche,Sanofi-Aventis, Shire.

Avant.

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550,000> 1 / minute

>150 this morning

550,000> 1 / minute

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> 5,600 (MedlineTM)

550,000> 1 / minute

>150 this morning

> 5,600 (MedlineTM)

Is the Peer Review Journal Dead? Is the Peer Review Journal Dead?

Aims• What are journals for ?• What do they do ?• Who benefits ?• What are the problems ?• What are the alternatives ?

What are journals for ? What are journals for ?

What are journals for ? What are journals for ?

• Registration• Certification• Awareness• Archiving

What do they do ? What do they do ?

What do they do ? What do they do ?

• Online submission• Peer review• Editorial decision• Production • Publication

Who benefits ? Who benefits ?

Who benefits ? Who benefits ?

• Author• Publisher • Editor / peer reviewers

What are the problems? What are the problems?

What are the problems? What are the problems?

• Peer review• Most papers are rubbish• Research hijacked• Restricted full-text access

What are the problems? What are the problems?

Peer review“Slow, expensive, ineffective, a lottery, biased, incapable of detecting fraud and prone to abuse”

Smith R. BMJ 2004;329:242-4

What are the problems? What are the problems?

Most papers are rubbish• “Words on paper rarely lead directly to change

– and thank goodness they don’t, considering the rubbish that journals often publish”.

Smith R. BMJ 2004;329:242-4

• Few trials are valid and relevant ( <1% – 7% ) Haynes RB. ACP J Club

1993;119:A22-A23 Scott I, Glaziou P. Med J Aust 2012;197:374-8

What are the problems? What are the problems?Research hijacked

Radcliffe Publishing

2013

Harper Collins 2013

What are the problems? What are the problems? Restricted full-text access

$24 billion biomedical publishing industry

What are the alternatives? What are the alternatives?

What are the alternatives? What are the alternatives?• Release ALL data / publish negative trials• Focus on the reader • Post publication review

• ‘publish then filter’• rating systems / Web 2.0 tools / crowdsourcing

• Educational / translational focus …

What are the alternatives? What are the alternatives?Educational / translational focus

Websites Blog posts

Case studies Teaching videos

Podcasts Elearning modules

Apps

ALL informed by the best literature

Is the Peer Review Journal Dead? Is the Peer Review Journal Dead?

Conclusions• Not yet – but smelling badly !• Return the focus back onto the reader• Expect and embrace all forms of

post publication review• Focus on education / translation

Is the Peer Review Journal Dead? Is the Peer Review Journal Dead?

Conclusions• Not yet – but smelling badly …• Return the focus back onto the reader• Expect / embrace post publication review• Focus on education / translation

• EXCEPTION !

Emerg Med Australas 2014; 26 (1). Feb issue