[meteorite-list] Re: Clowns . was Self Proclaimed Pairings Issues (SPPI)
From: MexicoDoug_at_aol.com <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon May 8 14:41:09 2006 Message-ID: <263.9e338b8.3190eaaf_at_aol.com> Hola Gary and others Yes, usually with independent peer review you have to make all the reviewers happy by answering their sometimes dumb questions but your sometimes erroneous statements, poor exposition, ambiguous statements, flawed graphs, etc. Frequently, each reviewer gets a separate copy of your work to review and independently reviews it blindly - then all the corrections and clarifications are forwarded to you from the editor to clean up or overhaul. So you can see that there is no jury coming to a verdict, just a bunch of sometimes friendly and sometimes overly enthusiastic scientists defending their territory in the diverse details with pens who suffer from all of the benefits and vices people have and who sometimes delight in pointing out errors they find. If the editor properly picks a set of expert independent peer reviewers, the review can be more rigorous than a trip to the dentist, even if you have good teeth (If he doesn't, well let's ignore that). While the system has weaknesses in that if the editor likes you, there is the potential for issues that might not be too critical to be glossed over, or there may be so few available reviewers who may become friendly with the I scratch your back now and you mine later, it is the best we 've got. On the other hand, if one applies the scientific method rigorously and considers all the literature relating to the theme, even an aggressive reviewer can be mostly neutralized by good work. If you can think of another system that works better, you deserve a Nobel Prize. Remember, when a reviewer is asked to review someone else's work, they are usually not paid and may just feel a responsibility to the temple of science even if they are hopelessly swamped with their own work (There is no recognition for "papers reviewed". In exchange, they usually remain anonymous, and get to keep up with publications before they hit the press, and sometimes get ideas from their review work that can help them advance related studies. The moderating of this process falls on the editor's shoulders where the buck stops. The editor has a reputation to defend and a lot riding on his or her ability to churn out quality work in the journal periodically, and this is the system of checks and balances we have. Saludos, Doug PS, incontrovertible is synonomous with perfect. The peer review system does not demand that. It demands defensible work. Imagine where we would be 100 years later if we held Einstein to the standard you favor. Relativity would never have been published, and still with all the effort in these last 100 years has its holes and would remain unacceptable and unpublishable. Not a very good scenario, I think you'd agree. Received on Mon 08 May 2006 02:40:47 PM PDT |
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