European Peer Review Guide - European Science Foundation

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European Peer Review Guide
structure are: effectiveness, clarity and simplicity.
The governance structure is meant not only to
ensure that all the relevant players and stakeholders
are made fully aware of their roles and assigned
tasks, their expected contributions and their responsibilities
but also to ensure that all contributions
are made according to the required standards and
within the scheduled deadlines. Finally, the governance
structure is meant to be able to hold the
relevant bodies accountable for any deviations or
shortfalls.
Some of the main attributes of credible and
effective governance are outlined below:
• Identification of the relevant actors, and clarification
of the scope and levels of their responsibilities
(e.g., decision makers, clients such as researchers
and the public, other stakeholders such as regional
or national governments);
• Definition of roles and responsibilities of the key
actors: programme officers, management committees,
review panels, other decision making or
consulting panels (such as ethical panels or monitoring
panels or committees), readers, external
observers, etc.;
• Definition and dissemination of key decision making
processes and approval processes;
• Definition and dissemination of procedures to
effect continuous improvement through appropriate
changes to the process;
• Availability and effective allocation of the required
resources (financial, human resources, technical
recourses and infrastructure, etc.);
• Terms of reference and, if possible, code of conduct
for all the participants (terms of appointment,
confidentiality agreement, declaration of conflict
of interest, integrity code, etc.).
3.5 Methodology
The final important pillar for achieving good
practice in peer review is the actual adopted methodologies
and approaches for conducting peer
review. Since it is under ‘methodology’ that the
main building blocks and common approaches
of peer review are described, a dedicated chapter,
Chapter 4, is provided to illustrate the different
steps and the sequential order of the peer review
process in a general sense.