Hi all --
On the subject of reviewing, you may be interested in the following
wonderful, but overlooked, article:
"A Note on the Game of Refereeing", by J. M. Chambers and A. M.
Herzberg, Applied Statistics, Vol. 17 (3): pp. 260-263 (1968).
The authors define a two-person game, played between two teams called
which they call, WLOG, an author and a referee. To quote from the
paper:
"[the] author's objective is to have his paper published, and that extra
points accrue for the publication of a particularly worthless
submission. Likewise, the referee's minimal objective is to have the
paper refused and extra credit obtained if the paper was a major
contribution to the field. Some consider that the referee may attain a
higher optimum if, in addition to having the paper refused, he reduces
the author to a "nervous pulp" .... Still greater success can be
claimed if the author gives up serious work altogether, say by joining
an operations research firm. Similar higher level goals might be
devised for the author, for example, taking up all the time the referee
would normally spend on his own research."
The paper describes the rules and plays of the game, and gives tactics
for each player, e.g. citing well-known people (an author tactic),
deliberate misunderstanding (a referee tactic), or citing obscure
references (a tactic for both).
Chambers and Herzberg themselves appear to use each of the author
tactics they describe.
-- Peter
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Peter McBurney
Agent Applications, Research and Technology (Agent ART)
Group
Department of Computer Science
University of Liverpool
Liverpool L69 7ZF
U.K.
Tel: + 44 151 794 6768
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web page: www.csc.liv.ac.uk/~peter/
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