Can’t find more information just now but on the latest episode of ScienceTalk (SciAm‘s weekly podcast)
Scientific American editor-in-chief John Rennie discusse[d] peer review of scientific literature, the subject of a panel he recently served on at the World Conference of Science Journalists
I hope there will be more openly available information about this panel and other discussions of the peer-review process.
Though I do consider the peer-review process extremely important for academia in general, I personally think that it could serve us more if it were rethought. Learning that such a panel was held and hearing about some of the comments made there is providing me with some satisfaction. In fact, I’m quite glad that the discussion is, apparently, thoughtful and respectful instead of causing the kind of knee-jerk reaction which makes many a discussion inefficient (including in academic contexts).