Peer Review in the Google Age: Is technology changing the way science is done and evaluated?

Abstract

Peer review in science and technology has been the subject of significant controversy. In a world where finding information is laborious, the knowledge that a document is from a "“trusted source" is valuable. This presentation explores whether coming of Google and other web based search engines have impacted how science is done, peer reviewed and published and whether the present peer review process is necessary and maintains the quality and focus of a journal and articles published. With increasing number of Open Access Institutional Repositories worldwide and indexed by Google, more and more scientific literature is now visible than before and hence resulting in increased worldwide access to scientific literature. Quality blogs and wikis have speeded up the process of scientific communication through informal peer reviews while the present system of formal peer review still attempts to maintain quality of a reserach paper although it tends to slow down the process of scientific communication. More debate and discussion on issues mentioned will further shed light on this important subject of peer reviews in Google environment.