Peer Reviews and Publications
In order to produce high-quality science results related to the EPA and Office of Research and Developments missions, the Landscape Sciences Program and its various components undergo extensive peer review. There are four primary types of peer review:
- program-level reviews conducted by university, institute, and other
agency scientists that evaluate the strategic vision and direction of
the Landscape Sciences Program. These are reviews of program-level strategic
plans and strategies;
- program-level reviews conducted by the EPA Science
Advisory Board;
- reviews of research plans that provide details of specific aspects
of scientific research highlighted in the strategic plans. These plans
normally provide hypotheses to be addressed by the research and specific
methods and study designs to test such hypotheses. These reviews are
conducted by scientists outside of EPA from universities, institutes,
and other government agencies;
- publication of peer-reviewed journal articles and EPA reports. These articles and reports generally provide results and conclusions of individual research components and are peer reviewed by experts in scientific fields related to remote sensing, landscape ecology, ecology, biology, and hydrology, to name a few.
The Landscape Sciences program published a peer-reviewed research strategy in 2000 highlighting projects to be conducted by the program over the next 10 years. This strategy built on a previous research strategies published as EPA reports in 1994 and 1995, reviews conducted by the SAB in 1994 and 1997, and a major program review conducted by external experts in December 1996. It also has published a number of peer-reviewed research plans and journal articles over the last 7 years. The program plans to have the SAB review its progress in 2001.