David makes a great point. We already have one impact rating company that biases by adding its own journals into the pot regardless of quality and that uses guidelines other than journal quality to include publications in its database (such as "will it expand their market into new geographic regions."). Certainly, this would just become another set of bureaucratic mumbo jumbo that appears to mean something when in fact, the biases that will be incorporated into it will intentionally further certain corporate entities at the expense of others.
Malcolm On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 6:04 PM, David Duffy <[email protected]> wrote: > 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] > -- Malcolm L. McCallum Managing Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
