Criteria for Peer Reviewing the Original Articles Submitted to a Biomedical Journal: Intellectual Honesty is the Best Policy.

Abstract

Peer review - a process of assessing the quality of manuscripts submitted to a journal – is an established
norm in biomedical publications. It is viewed as an extension of scientific process. The peer-reviewed research
articles are considered trustworthy because they are believed to be unbiased and independent. The process
of reviewing is a privilege and prestige. It is highly responsible, intellectually honest, and difficult job.
Being expert in certain area of biomedical science is a prerequisite for reviewers. Young peer reviewers
trained in epidemiology or statistics produce high-quality review. The International Congresses on Peer
Review in Biomedical Publication have shown many unresolved issues related to preparation or handling of
manuscripts by a journal. Therefore, it is vital to identify authentic peer reviewers to ensure quality
publication, thus, a set of peer review criteria is proposed for peer reviewing original articles. It is useful in
quantifying (scoring) the manuscript quality. The proposed scoring system yields three categories of
manuscripts: the first category is considered acceptable for publication after minor modification by editorial
board and/or reviewers, the second – requires rewriting and resubmission, and the third – rejected. These
criteria are preliminary guidelines, and require timely review. They are expected to sensitise peer reviewers,
editors, contributors, and readers to move towards greater honesty and responsibility while working with
manuscripts. In summary, if the criteria are used they will facilitate editorial management of manuscripts,
render more justice to authors and biomedical science, and improve publication quality.

Key Words: Biomedical publication, peer review, peer review criteria, scoring of manuscripts, categories of manuscripts, journal of Nepal Medical Association.