The Second International Congress on Peer Review in Biomedical Publication

In this issue ofThe Journal, we publish 26 of the papers presented at the Second International Congress on Peer Review in Biomedical Publication, held in Chicago, Ill, September 9-11, 1993. Of these 26 papers, two, those by Kassirer and Campion1and Judson,2were invited. The others were submitted in response to a concerted effort we have made during the past 8 years to stimulate research into editorial peer review.3,4 Given the subject, it is appropriate to comment on the review process used to help select these papers. We received 110 abstracts describing work to be presented at the congress. These were sent to seven independent reviewers (from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom) who allotted scores to each abstract; selection was made according to these scores. Thirty-three abstracts (30%) were selected for oral presentation, and 21 abstracts (19%) were presented as posters. Subsequently, the