What is the role of peer-reviewed literature in chemistry?
As in all the sciences, peer review is really the standard that researchers expect. As electronic access has expanded, scientists and the public have more access to information but they still need to know the quality of that information. Peer review sets the bar.Peer review also reinforces the evaluation that funding bodies use by providing a sort of independent system of checks for funding. Chemists use the literature itself in many ways. Synthetic chemists rely on experimental details to reproduce the syntheses of novel compounds. Chemists also need literature to help characterise materials and in discovering practical applications.
