Peer Review in Health Sciences. Edited by Fiona Godlee and Tom Jefferson. (Pp 269; £27.00.) BMJ Publishing Group, 1999. ISBN0-7279-1181-3. Why devote space in the PMJ to this topic? Because, although it is a topic to which most of us have probably given little consideration, it is one we should be concerned about and, as one of the contributors puts it, the system is “broke” and needs fixing. Peer review is a complex system for the appraisal of manuscripts submitted for publication in medical journals, of grant applications for research funding, or of research protocols. It is a supposedly rigorous process that has affected or will affect many of us in clinical practice and all of us in clinical research, basic research, and the development of …