Perspectives in Publishing address issues of concern to all our editors and are sent to you as soon as published. Some of these publications are available free of charge to the scientific community.

Perspectives in Publishing No 2
Peer review is an essential component of scholarly publishing. In recent years it has attracted criticism and its role has been challenged. Based upon the findings of focus groups commissioned by Elsevier, this issue examines the role of peer review and discusses if, and how, it could be improved.

Is Peer Review in Crisis?

Perspectives in Publishing no 1
The ISI® Journal Citation Reports impact factor has moved in recent years from an obscure bibliometric indicator to become the chief quantitative measure of the quality of journal, its research papers, the researchers who wrote those papers, and even the institution they work in. This report discusses the limitations of the impact factor, how it can and how it should not be used.

Impact Factors: Use and Abuse