Peer Review Policies and Practices

On This Page:  What's New in Peer Review For Reviewers Law, Regulations and Policies
	Peer review meeting in progress (Photo courtesy of Center for Scientific Review)

What's New in Peer Review

• New Review Criteria for Research Project Applications Involving Clinical Trials (Sept. 21, 2017) Read More
   
• Clinical Trial Requirements for Grants and Contracts (August 17, 2017) Read More


• Updated Appendix Policy Eliminates Clinical Trial-Related Materials for Applications Submitted to Due Dates on or After Jan. 25, 2018 (August 17, 2017) Read More


• Reducing Duplicate Commons Accounts (July 12, 2017) Read More

For Reviewers

Information for reviewers:  Find pre-meeting, meeting and post-meeting activities on our ‘Information for Reviewers’ website.  The site includes key information such as reviewer guidelines, policy documents, step-by-step instructions for using the Internet Assisted Review (IAR) system. In addition, critique templates are located on the website; reviewers must check with their Scientific Review Officer on which template to use. 

Law, Regulations and Policies

Peer review regulations provide the underpinning of peer review policies. 

• Final Rules and Regulations for Scientific Peer Review of Research Grant Applications and Research and Development Contract Projects (42 CFR 52h) - (PDF - 61 KB)
• Federal Register Notice - January 15, 2004 -  (PDF - 67 KB) 
• Office of Federal Advisory Committee Policy
• Government in the Sunshine Act 

For Peer Review policies, see the section for:

• Confidentiality
  • Maintaining Confidentiality in NIH Peer Review (NOT-OD-14-073)
  • NIH Confidentiality and Non Disclosure Rules
  • FAQs

 

• Conflict of Interest
  • Managing Conflict of Interest in NIH Peer Review of Grants and Contracts
  • FAQs

 

• Rigor
  • Rigor & Reproducibility
  • FAQs

 

• Human Subjects
  • Guidelines for the Review of the Human Subjects Section
  • FAQs

 

• Inclusion
  • Guidelines for the Review of Inclusion on the Basis of Sex/Gender, race, Ethnicity and Age in Clinical Research
  • FAQs

 

• Stem Cells
  • Application Proposing Use of Human Embryonic Stem Cells

 

• Vertebrate Animals
  • Worksheet for the Vertebrate Animals Section (VAS)
  • FAQs

 

• Budget
  • Budget and Period of Support Information

 

• Scoring
  • The NIH Announces New Scoring Procedures for Evaluation of Research Applications (NOT-OD-09-024)

 

• Appeals
  • Appeals of NIH Initial Peer Review (NOT-OD-11-064) 

Note: Other guidelines can be found on the Consolidated List of Reviewer Documents webpage