GAO Finds Federal Peer Review Practices Vary By Agency

While there is no uniform federal policy for conducting peer reviews and no written government-wide definition of peer review, there is general agreement among the agencies and the While House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as to what the term means, according to a new General Accounting Office (GAO) report, Peer Review Practices at Federal Science Agencies Vary. OSTP and the Office of Management and Budget encourage funding of research projects that are peer reviewed over those that are not reviewed through the process.

Additionally, GAO found some common criticisms of the peer review process from officials in several agencies. Issues raised included peer review being occasionally elitist (discounting economic considerations over science) and its potential for discouraging the funding of innovative research as peer review practices tend to be conservative.

To address these concerns, OSTP is initiating an interagency effort to examine which agencies' peer review practices might better facilitate innovation. OSTP officials participating in the GAO study felt peer review practices should not be dictated uniformly for every agency or for all types of federally funded research. Rather, the practices should be tailored to agency missions and type of research. A 1996 report from the National Science and Technology Council encouraged the same flexibility across federal scientific agencies.

Each of the 12 agencies GAO studied had a variety of policies, orders, or other internal guidance regarding the conduct of peer review. All of the agencies use peer review to assess competitive research proposals. The report includes descriptions of the peer review practices employed by each of the 12 agencies.

Copies of the Peer Review Practices at Federal Science Agencies Vary (GAO/RCED-99-99) can be downloaded from http://www.gao.gov