One way to handle that would be to put an expiration date on PubCreds, perhaps 24 months.
Heaven forbid it should all lead to a system of reviewers who would review the quality of reviews. :-) BILL On Jul 22, 2010, at 11:08 AM, Amartya Saha wrote: > Its a good idea; however there is a possibility of the quality of reviews > deteriorating, whereby reviewers may not assign the time and effort required > for an indepth review, as their main aim would be to get as many "PubCreds" > as possible. > cheers > Amartya > > > Quoting Jeremy Fox <[email protected]>: > >> The peer review system is breaking down and will soon be in crisis: >> increasing numbers of submitted manuscripts mean that demand for reviews is >> outstripping supply. This is a classic "tragedy of the commons," in which >> individuals have every incentive to exploit the "reviewer commons" by >> submitting manuscripts, but little or no incentive to contribute reviews. >> The result is a system increasingly dominated by "cheats" (individuals who >> submit papers without doing proportionate reviewing), with increasingly >> random and potentially biased results as more and more manuscripts are >> rejected without external review. >> >> In the latest issue of the ESA Bulletin (July 2010, v. 91, p. 325), Owen >> Petchey and I propose a classic solution to this classic tragedy: >> privatizing the commons. Specifically, we propose that instead of being free >> to exploit the reviewer commons at will, authors should have to "pay" for >> their submissions using a novel "currency" called PubCreds, earned by >> performing reviews. We discuss how this simple, powerful idea could be >> implemented in practice, and describe its advantages over previously >> proposed solutions. >> >> The article is available at >> <http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/0012-9623-91.3.325>. >> >> Owen and I are very serious about wanting to see this idea, or a suitable >> alternative, implemented. We have set up a petition at >> <http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fix-peer-review/>. Please sign if you >> support this idea, at least enough to want to see it further discussed. The >> petition site also has a link to the article, and a blog where we'll be >> updating on progress of the idea and responding to comments. >> >> PubCreds are already set to be discussed by the ESA Publications Committee, >> and by numerous other ecology journals. If you're as frustrated as Owen and >> I by the recent deterioration of the peer review process, now's the time to >> speak up and take action. Please sign the petition, and pass it on to your >> colleagues and students. >> > > > > www.bio.miami.edu/asaha ========= RESEARCH PROGRAM c/o BILL HILTON JR. Executive Director Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History 1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA office & cell (803) 684-5852 fax (803) 684-0255 Please visit our web sites (courtesy of Comporium.net): Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History at http://www.hiltonpond.org "Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project" at http://www.rubythroat.org ==================
