10/27/15
Peer-Reviewed Literature in the Science Synthesis to Inform Plan
Revisions Within the Northwest Forest Plan Area
This synthesis focuses on scientific findings from published, peer-reviewed literature. The Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) explains the importance of peer review in their Information Quality
Bulletin for Peer Review, available at:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/memoranda/fy2005/m05-03.pdf:
“Peer review is one of the important procedures used to ensure that the quality of published
information meets the standards of the scientific and technical community. It is a form of
deliberation involving an exchange of judgments about the appropriateness of methods and the
strength of the author’s inferences. Peer review involves the review of a draft product for
quality by specialists in the field who were not involved in producing the draft.”
OMB guidelines require that influential scientific information developed by a federal agency be
subjected to formal, independent, external peer review to ensure its objectivity. By extension the
information contained in that scientific document should be peer-reviewed and published (or pending
publication) by a reputable scientific or professional journal or through an agency-sponsored peer
review process that meets the general criteria for competent and credible peer review.
Peer-reviewed articles provide a trusted form of scientific communication. Scientific knowledge is
cumulative, building upon previous findings in the literature. Peer-reviewed science does not necessarily
mean what is presented is true, as new information occurs all the time and may overturn or refine
previous findings. Peer-reviewed science is not necessarily definitive due to the limitations of available
studies. However, peer review is the standard procedure within the scientific community for
determining which findings meet thresholds of scientific scrutiny. For these reasons, the authors of the
science synthesis for the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) will use material that has been peer-reviewed
and published in print or online.
Certain subjects such as social, economic, health, cultural, or highly specialized ecological topics may
lack available peer-reviewed literature. To address such gaps, authors may incorporate relevant
scientific information from master’s theses and dissertations and potentially other research that has
been subject to review. Any references to such literature will clearly indicate the different nature of the
source to the readers. By contrast, peer-reviewed literature is not the only valid source of information
for management strategies and plans. The national forests will consider a host of other information
sources to inform their plan revisions as part of their forest assessment process.
The authors of the science synthesis will wherever possible focus on peer-reviewed research that
occurred in the synthesis area or in forest ecosystems with relevant ecological or social conditions.
Ecological and social research is always context specific, and few universal principles apply in either of
these disciplines because place, time, and research scope all affect the data collected. Scientific studies
are often published with caveats about their spatial and temporal scale. These caveats make it difficult
for managers and even other scientists to integrate and distill the information for particular
management situations. To address this challenge, the science synthesis will clarify the extent and
limitations of available information, especially by highlighting various research gaps.