Abstract
The peer review process is widely used to evaluate manuscripts for publication in scientific journals. Yet the reliability of recommendations about the suitability of manuscripts has been found to be quite low: the weighted mean of the single-reviewer reliability for a variety of journals is only 0,29. This paper describes a study of the evaluation of manuscripts submitted to the South African Journal of Psychology (SAJP) from 1988 to 1990. Single-reviewer reliability was found to be 0,34, slightly (but not significantly) above the mean for high status overseas journals. An investigation of other aspects of the review process indicates that peer review is useful to both authors and editors despite its shortcomings. Most of the recommended improvements of peer review suggested recently were incorporated into the SAJP's review process several years ago.
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