Welcome to the Rigorous Reproducible Responsible Research Integrity at UF (R4I@UF) website!  Please visit each month for a new case that may be used as a framework for a brief conversation about best research practices in your lab meeting, research conference, journal club, or any research meeting.

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June 2026 – Biased Peer Review or Flawed Methodology?

This month’s case scenario is one of a series that follows the story of Dr. Thompson’s laboratory, and explores the issues that arise from being in a small lab through the eyes of a new principal investigator (PI), a postdoctoral fellow, and a graduate student.   

Please watch this brief video (about 3 minutes) to set up the research dilemma. After watching the video, consider these questions.

1. What are the PI’s options in this situation?
2. If you suspected the motivations behind a review, how would you decide which edits / requests are valid and which are superfluous?
3. What would motivate a peer reviewer to purposefully slow down someone’s publication?
4. What can be done to prevent this from happening?

For more information about peer review, please see the Peer Review resources web page. 

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To submit a “Case of the Month” for the R4I@UF website, please contact Wayne T. McCormack, PhD (mccormac at ufl.edu).

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