How does the Peer Review process work on scientific papers?

[AussieNeil]

Posts to our community reference many scientific and medical papers that have been through a process of peer review. But what is a peer review and how does the peer review process work? What are its strengths and weaknesses and are there any alternatives?

"Peer review is one of the gold standards of science. It’s a process where scientists (“peers”) evaluate the quality of other scientists' work. By doing this, they aim to ensure the work is rigorous, coherent, uses past research and adds to what we already knew."

Andre Spicer, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Cass Business School at City University London and Thomas Roulet and Novak Druce Research Fellow at University of Oxford review the peer review process:

theconversation.com/explain...

"Ultimately, less than 10% of the submitted papers are accepted in the best journals in the social sciences. The renowned journal Nature publishes around 7% of the submitted papers."

Neil