PITFALLS AND SUCCESSES OF PEER-REVIEW IN NEUROSURGERY

As the first editor of the Journal of Neurosurgery, Louise Eisenhardt, acting with the advice of the editorial board, was responsible for ma king decisions on the acceptance or rejection of submitted manuscripts . Her log, covering the first 14 years of editorial decisions, is a re cord of neurosurgical progress and of the forces-scientific, technical and other-that shaped the field of neurosurgery. Any peer-review proc ess is subject to pitfalls that become evident in retrospect. but an e ffective peer-review process is one of the basic ingredients of scient ific progress, The decisions to accept or reject manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Neurosurgery during Eisenhardt's tenure are highlig hted in this historical vignette.