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Review of a new survey of 3000 academics around the world in the sciences and arts commissioned by the Public Research Consortium; 93% of the respondents agreed that peer review is necessary. Other questions involved “single-blind” and “double-blind” reviewing and whether reviewers should be paid. Mark Ware, the independent consultant who carried out the survey, says, “We hope editors will at least look into the possibility of double-blind peer review, as bias is certainly present when knowing the author’s identity in single-blind review.” Luey B. Different kind of Profession: the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ). Journal of Scholarly Publishing 2008;39(2):94–108. (http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_scholarly_publishing/toc/scp39.2.html) The keynote address at the 2006 meeting of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals discusses the ways professions are or are not appropriate to journal editing, and some possibilities for increasing professionalism. For one of the starting questions, “is journal editing a profession?” the proposed answer is that it should not be. Rather, it should be a profession open to innovation and talent and transparent to those who interact with it as authors, subscribers, and readers. Macdonald S, Kam J. Aardvark et al. Quality journals and gamesmanship in management studies. Journal of Information Science 2007;33(6):702–717. (doi: 10.1177/0165551507077419) Analyses the notion of a “quality journal”, as publication in such journals has become a major indicator of research performance in UK universities. The indicator, as often happens, has become the target, so the challenge is to publish in quality journals, and the challenge rewards gamesmanship. In the rush to win the game, publication as a means of communicating research findings for the public benefit remains all but forgotten. This analysis of the situation in management studies underlines a much more widespread problem; it concludes that laughter, on top of being the appropriate reaction to such farce, could also be a stimulus to reform. © Copyright 2008 by European Association of Science Editors Top of Page |
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