"Peer Review" is a process for assessing the rigour of a scholarly submission to a journal (or conference).
Articles that are peer-reviewed are reviewed by colleagues/peers in a similar field, and authors and journal editors are provided with feedback on the relevance and quality of the submission, and its suitability for publication (or presentation at a conference).
Blind peer review is a process whereby the reviewers know the identity of the authors, but the authors do not know who the reviewers are.
Double blind peer review requires anonymization of the submission (including references to lab/institution etc) and both the reviewers and the authors do not know the identity of the other
In an open peer-review process, peer-reviewers are known to authors and readers of journals.
Not all scholarly publications are peer-reviewed and not all of the content published in a peer-reviewed journal may undergo a peer-review process (As an example, letters to the editor may not be peer-reviewed).
Visit our guide to Scholarly Communication for more information on the scholarly publication process.
