For the the PubCred system
Which journals will be asked (or allowed?) to participate? Who decides?
Who will keep track of the credits?
Many editors in smaller journals already have enough to do and may
not be overly enthused, how would you deal with the extra burden on them?
Won't this discriminate horribly against those for whom English is
not a first language?
How will you tell Chinese names apart as their 7,000 characters lose
something when translated into our alphabet? Or how will you tell the
various David Duffys apart?
The devil is in the details.
Cheers,
David Duffy
At 10:38 AM 7/22/2010, Jeremy Fox wrote:
The most common concern raised about the proposed system is how to allow for
people (especially students and postdocs) who aren't asked to review very
much, and so lack PubCreds through no fault of their own.
Our article notes this issue and suggests 'overdrafts' as a means to deal
with it. But many other solutions have been suggested, and there are aspects
of this issue which Owen and I did not have the space to address in our
article. So I've just posted a blog entry on the PubCred website further
discussing this important issue:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fix-peer-review/blog/2594
I summarize many of the alternative suggestions we've received so far on how
to address this issue, and highlight the importance of a period of data
collection before the PubCred system 'goes live'. I also note that there's
often no clear distinction between those who lack PubCreds 'through no fault
of their own', and those who have 'only themselves to blame' for their lack
of PubCreds. Like any 'bank balance', a PubCred balance reflects both
'income' and 'expenses'. Just because someone has little 'income' doesn't
mean they've 'spent' wisely, which makes it a little tricky to choose the
best way of helping 'low income' people like students and postdocs.
David Cameron Duffy
Professor of Botany and Unit Leader
Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit (PCSU)
University of Hawai`i
3190 Maile Way St. John 410
Honolulu, HI 96822-2279
(808) 956-8218 phone
(808) 956-4710 fax / (808) 956-3923 (backup fax)
email address: [email protected]
