Readers' rights: peer review in Chinese medical publication

Among Western students and clinicians of Chinese medicine, the concept of peer review has become associated with specific aspects of academic and scientific writing that have immediate and obvious political and commercial consequences. For example, peer review is often discussed as if it were equivalent to a demand for randomized controlled clinical trials (RCT) or a specific approach to transparency in translation. While these are important issues, peer review is not a single specific practice but a philosophy indispensable to the traditional Western commitment to free expression. It is the critical means by which validity is assessed over time. It is necessary for the formation of consensus within any field. Peer access to information is also essential to recognizing the right of readers to know the sources and methods by which claims of value are made. Since a fundamental set of information needed for effective peer review can be described, the absence of uniform labels and formats is a significant lack that the Council of Oriental Medical Publishers (COMP) should address.