Peer Review - Critical Feedback or Necessary Evil?

Abstract

Anyone who has participated in scientific publishing, either as author or editor, has dealt with the process of peer review. Of course, individual opinions on peer review vary, with viewpoints ranging from it being an important part of ensuring the quality and reliability of scientific publications, to thoughts that the process as a whole is completely broken. Unfortunately, it also seems that authors often look at peer review as being a painful exercise forced upon them by journals, while those serving as reviewers too often see it as something expected of them, but not important enough to spend considerable effort performing.