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Although peer review is usually deemed a useful practice, it is not without problems and has been criticised. The main problems related to peer review are the slowdown of the publication process and the impact of biases on the review. For example, the referees may discriminate against authors based on their age, gender, career stage or affiliation, or prefer interpretations that support their own opinions. In addition to this, serious errors and defects in the article may not be detected during the peer review but may only become apparent after the article has been published. Especially in the small fields of science and countries such as Finland, authors can easily identify each other’s work, even if the review is carried out anonymously. Recruiting suitable referees can also be challenging. Peer review may also facilitate plagiarism, in which case the referee misuses the unpublished data of the manuscript. However, problems in peer review are relatively rare and the more important issue is its impact on the quality of publications. There has not been much research on the impact of peer review and studies have mainly been carried out on biomedical journals.
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Ross-Hellauer , T. , (2017. ) What is open peer review? A systematic review [version 2; peer review: 4 approved]. F1000Research 2017, 6, 588–30. http p. 588. Available: https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.11369.12
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