Peer review has been around since journals were first published. Peer review organized by journal editors is, however, relatively recent, having become popular in the mid-1900s. Prior to that time, editors decided what to publish. The change of approach has not been good for science. Mandatory journal peer review is biased against the proper scientific study of important problems. It is also unreliable, slow, expensive, and has led to the mindless publication of many incorrect and useless studies. We suggest that journal peer review should be replaced by assessment of whether a paper follows proper scientific procedures. We describe the development of checklist software to aid in this process. Using the software would reduce the time and cost of reviewing research papers and help to avoid biased reviews. We pretested the software using a convenience sample of published papers and compared preliminary findings with those from software designed to assess the conformity of advertisements with evidence-based persuasion principles. The online journal PLoS employ a criterion they call “soundness,” which is akin to assessing conformance to science, for choosing articles to publish. Since that journal was founded ten years ago, PLoS has become the world’s largest publisher of research articles. We suggest that journal editors, PhD programs, universities, law courts, and research funders including governments adopt the Conformance to Science checklist to efficiently identify research worthy of support and use, and to thereby encourage the growth of scientific knowledge.

Reasonable and reliable assessment method is one of the most important issues in science education, Partial credits method is an effective tool for assessing students' science inquiry problem solving. The purposes of this study were to classify the Problem solving types based on the analysis of the thinking Process, and how much the related science concept and the science process skills were used in solving science inquiry problems, and to describe the possibility and rationality of the assessment method that gives partial credit 128 high school seniors were selected and their answers were analyzed to identify science concepts they used to solve each problem, and the result was used as the criterion in the scientific concept test development. Also, to study the science inquiry problem solving type, 152 high school seniors were selected, and protocols were made from audio-taped data of their problem solving process through a think-aloud method and retrospective interviews. In order to get a raw data needed in statistical comparison of reliability, discrimination and the difficulty of the test and the production of the regression equation that determines the ratio of partial credit, 640 students were selected and they were given a science inquiry problem test, a science process skills test, and a scientific concept test. Research result suggested it is more reasonable and reliable to switch to the assessment method that applies partial credit to different problem solving types based on the analysis of the thinking process in problem solving process, instead of the dichotomous credit method.