The Royal Society publishes hundreds of historical peer-reviewed reports to the public | News

Hundreds of peer-reviewed reports from 1949 to 1954 were released to the public by Britain’s National Academy of Science. The Royal Society says publishing the reports will allow researchers to “trace the history of scientific peer review”.

Due to confidentiality laws, the peer review reports had to be kept confidential for 70 years. After this embargo expires, the 1,600 newly published reports can now be viewed on the RS portal “Science in the Making”. The reports complement an archive of referee reports dating back to 1831.

Newly published reports include a review by Nobel laureate Dorothy Hodgkin of one of the important early papers by Francis Crick and James Watson on the structure of DNA. In the report, Hodgkin suggests that the authors use white pigments to “touch up” a photo of their DNA structural model to remove a reflection that is “very confusing to the eye.”

Another account refers to Alan Turing’s famous work on reaction-diffusion processes underlying natural phenomena in which homogeneous systems give rise to patterns such as stripes and spots – now commonly known as Turing patterns.

“Peer review is an essential part of all scientific endeavors.” “It is of course a crucial process of review, but also a unique meeting (or collision) of ideas,” said Louisiane Ferlier, a historian at the Royal Society. “It’s exciting that readers can finally take a look behind the scenes and see the fascinating criticism and praise for some of the most groundbreaking work and theories of the time, from the structure of DNA to the physiology of fungi.”

“These newly published papers also show that more women entered the Royal Society arbitration process in the late 1940s and 1950s,” she added. “Readers can delve into the accounts of some of our first female fellows, Dorothy Hodgkin and Kathleen Lonsdale, who have reviewed various papers by other prominent scientists.” “It is a wonderful opportunity to better understand the influential role of women in the history of scientific publishing understand.”