On ethical peer review and publication: the importance of professional conduct and communication.

Editors and reviewers provide an invaluable service to the nursing profession and are key to the promotion of nursing scholarship, open inquiry uncensored by opinion or bias, and further development of nursing's body of knowledge. By being accessible and promoting an effective, constructive review process, editors serve not only the nurses who write for them, but also their respective journals and readership. Authors deserve and expect professional and ethical behavior from peer reviewers and those in leadership who make final judgments about the publication status of their manuscripts.