Monday, January 12, 2015

Peering Through the Academic Blinds

Peer review is held up as the gold standard of legitimacy in academic publishing, but Lon Kilgore says the system has inherent flaws and isn’t as foolproof as journals would have you believe.

As any reader of CrossFit.com and The Russells blog can attest, exercise-science journals seem to be suffering from compromised systems of publication and ethics.

As scientists, clinicians and practitioners rely on the information contained within journals to provide factual basis for their experimental, therapeutic and training activities, a corrupted system has dire effects on every aspect of the exercise, fitness and sport industries. This is why it is absolutely important to publicly challenge journal editors, the peer-review process and even individual researchers when warranted. We must safeguard our professional livelihoods by ensuring we are operating on fact rather than misrepresented or fabricated data.

A number of processes in academic publishing are intended to ensure the quality and accuracy of manuscripts in publication. Let’s take a look at these systems, their components and their gatekeepers as they are all purported pillars of academic credibility.

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