Jacquelyn, I agree with you. The peer-review process and publication in established journals cuts down the amount of literature that I need to evaluate for sound science. By using peer-reviewed journals, I can be reasonably assured that the authors have used sound scientific principles in their studies, which means I can quickly evaluate and use articles (fewer articles to look through to find good papers)... instead of mucking through everyone's idea of science and pseudo-science.
Just one comment though. The public library system seems to use a different interlibrary loan network than university libraries. In between my Ph.D. and Postdoc I made requests at a local public library for journal articles. They were unable to fill them even though there is a university library 2 hours away. Kerry Griffis-Kyle New Mexico State University --- JACQUELYN GILL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello all, > > As a grad student, I have never, ever had to pay for an article, even when I > was > an undergraduate at a small liberal arts school of less than 350 students. > Librarians have been invaluable in helping me to acquire materials through > inter-library loan, including faxed or e-mailed scans of articles that weren't > available at my small school but were at a larger university nearby. This > service > is free, and assures that no one should ever face restricted access; if it's > not > at your library, it's going to be at another one (my understanding is that > this > works for public libraries as well). I would also to thank the many > librarians and > work study students who tirelessly scan, photocopy, and mail articles to > those in > need. > > As a graduate student, I am also learning to navigate the peer-review waters, > and > while I acknowledge the problems with the system I would also have to strongly > agree that we shouldn't replace it with what Petr Smilauer called "publishing > anarchism." I am in graduate school to develop breadth and depth in my > knowledge > base and acquire skills, and balancing teaching, research, and coursework > responsibilities takes up the bulk of my time. From my perspective, the > peer-review system is a highly efficient way of distributing the effort that > goes > into disseminating information. I receive e-mailed tables of contents, I > peruse > online databases like Web of Knowledge and Google Scholar, and I utilize > references to find what I need so I can quickly and efficiently return to the > task > at hand: learning. > > While it might be a valuable exercise, I certainly don't have the time or the > knowledge base to muck through articles on dozens (or hundreds) of websites, > deciding which is credible enough to cite in my term paper or the lit review > of my > thesis. So, as with librarians, I would like to take this as an opportunity to > thank the reviewers who volunteer their time, energy and expertise to making > sure > that I don't have to. This doesn't mean I take everything I read at face > value, > but I do think that the quality and integrity of my academic experience is > much > greater because I can train a more fine-tuned eye on research design and > conclusions because the broad work of weeding out and editing has already been > done. > > Thanks, > > Jacquelyn > > ************************ > Jacquelyn Gill > Graduate Research Assistant > Jack Williams Lab > > University of Wisconsin - Madison > Department of Geography > 550 North Park St. > Madison, WI 53706 > > 608.890.1188 (phone) > 608.265.9331 (fax) > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Petr Smilauer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 7:31 am > Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] SCIENCE Access to information > To: [email protected] > > > Dear all, > > > > Wayne Tyson wrote: > > > ... > > > What I would like to see is a shift from publication in the ripoff > > > journals to self-publishing on open-source websites (saving > > mountains > > > of Georgia clay and forests of "pulpwood"), casting all research and > > > > > scholarly work to the winds for ALL peers to review and reference, > > > thus eventually permitting MERIT to survive and the BS to compost. > > > > > > While I could write authors and get papers that way, the amount of > > > time involved, both for me and the authors, is, in my view, an > > > unnecessary burden in the 21st century. Multiply this by everyone > > > searching the Internet, and the burden is monumental. It is not > > > > I believe this is rather unfortunate argument. If such a "publishing > > anarchism" > > would have its way, we would spend much more time sorting out > > credibility of each published piece of results than we do with approaching > > authors or searching through the current databases on Internet. > > > > Also, the proportion of rubbish in the "published" (publicly exposed) > > papers would increase dramatically, if the authors would not face the > > prospect of their approach, results, and conclusions being checked by > > the experts in the same field. The large amount of "gray publications" > > is not only the result of the existence of high publishing barrier, but > > also the result of really bad science done at many places. > > > > In my opinion, the peer review is, despite all the faults of its actual > > state, really necessary to stay and abandoning it would be a disaster > > for scientific progress. On the other hand, the paper of Bergstrom & > > Bergstrom quoted here before tells interesting story and gives the > > recipe. Non-profit publishers are currently in a strong position and > > it can be further improved by qualified decisions of submitting > > authors. But the price of publishing cannot be driven down to "free", > > only at a huge expense of deteriorating the quality of communication > > among scientists. > > > > > > Petr Smilauer > > Ceske Budejovice > > Czech Republic > ***************************** Kerry Griffis-Kyle Postdoctoral Research Associate New Mexico State University ____________________________________________________________________________________Get the free Yahoo! toolbar and rest assured with the added security of spyware protection. http://new.toolbar.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/norton/index.php
