There has been a lot of recent controversy about peer review,but as this has been around since the 1940s it is still standard practice for most life sciences and biomedical journals.This presentation will examine the main differences between current models of peer review,and the ways in which some journals are attempting to overcome the limitations of peer review processes.Recent innovations in peer review have been developed outside the immediate publishers sphere with independent services offering authors a venue to have their research reviewed before submitting to a journal.Interesting times are ahead of us,as we are set to witness how these ways ofde-couplingthe peer review process with specific journals might affect scientific publishing.