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The early days of peer review: five insights from historical reports

A crop of referee reports from the Royal Society’s archive reveal discussions about cutting printing costs, reviewer holidays and even editing images.
By
  1. David Adam
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The UK Royal Society has more experience of peer review than most publishers, with the practice used by its journals for nearly 200 years. Last month, the society unsealed more than 1,600 historical reports, dating from 1949 to 1954, and added them to its archive. The reports include assessments of high-profile papers.

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Nature 634, 761-762 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03287-4

References

  1. Crick, F. H. C. & Watson, J. D. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 223, 80–96 (1954).

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  2. Watson, J. D. &, Crick, F. H.C. Nature 171, 737–738 (1953).

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  3. Turing, A. M. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 237, 37–72 (1952).

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