What are your ethical responsibilities as a peer reviewer?

Answer 1

I think your ethical responsibility is to the person you are reviewing, over the person you are reporting to, though of course the truth is more important than a friendship if there are bad things going on.

I think that most often it is good to remember they are just human, and quite possibly doing their utmost to do a good job.

Sometimes what keeps a person from doing the best they could is ambiguous instructions. For instance being told to keep the daily temperature out of doors, and that the only thermometer they have to use is not a good indicator. Or having a boss or teacher that makes one feel afraid to ask questions, yet does not explain things well.

The reason for the review, quite often, is to ascertain whether the person is doing well, or not, and what their consequences will be. It would not be for you to skew the thinking by weighing in heavily one way or another, unless that is your considered opinion, but to fairly meter out your evaluation of the person and their abilities, taking into consideration the people they have to work with. It is good to consider the people surrounding the one in question, as they most surely have an affect on that persons performance.