At the American Intellectual Property Law Association's Spring meeting being held in Houston, Texas, IBM's Associate General Council of Intellectual Property Law, Manny Schecter, will moderate a panel on the Peer-to-Patent project; a historic effort to improve patent quality by opening the examination process to community review.

In an editorial published early online today, JAMA Editor-in-Chief Catherine D. DeAngelis, M.D., M.P.H., and JAMA Editorial Counsel Joseph P. Thornton, J.D., write about a recent court ruling regarding litigation involving JAMA and the Archives of Internal Medicine (AIM) “that significantly threatened the integrity of our peer review process.”

Scientists are questioning whether peer review, the internationally accepted form of scientific critique, is able to meet the challenges posed by the rapid changes in the research landscape. A report published by the European Science Foundation (ESF) has showcased a number of options that could lead to a greater openness to innovative research.