The increasing success of the first 3 Peer Review Congresses,1- 3 held at 4-year intervals,
encourages us to hold a fourth congress in 2001. The Fourth International
Congress on Peer Review in Biomedical Publication will be held September 13-16,
2001, in Barcelona, Spain.
This congress, organized by JAMA and the BMJ
Publishing Group, will feature 3 days of presentations of original research.
As before, we urge scientists, editors, and readers who are interested in
the processes by which science is published to get going on their research.
Topics of interest include the mechanisms of peer review and editorial decision
making and evaluations of their validity and practicality; online and Web-based
peer review, publication, and prepublication posting and release of information;
quality assurance for reviewers and editors; authorship, contributorship,
and responsibility for published material; breakdowns, weaknesses, and biases;
peer review of grant proposals; conflicts of interest; scientific misconduct;
the economics of peer review and scientific publication; methods for improving
the quality, efficiency, and equitable distribution of biomedical information;
methods for measuring the quality of print and online information; interactive
digital systems and other new technologies that affect the dissemination of
biomedical information; and the future of scientific publication.