text
stringlengths 0
7.33k
|
|---|
that is, they predict which persons would have been selected to
|
respond to the reviewed article if referees has actually negotiated
|
and reached a consensus. One benefit of consensus journals is that
|
the negotiation process is automated, thus saving participant
|
effort.
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|
------ R: Review ------- M: Invitation -------
|
| Read |----------->| Calc. |--------------->| Write |----------->
|
------ ------- ------- R: Article
|
|
|
| R: Renege
|
R = Referee Calc. = Calculate consensus |
|
M = Mediator V
|
--------------------------------------------------------------------
|
Figure 1. Simplified cycle of operation for a consensus journal
|
The simplified cycle of operation for a consensus journal shows
|
actions in boxes and messages as arrows. In this simplified cycle,
|
referees invited to publish (and justify the reviews they have
|
submitted) have a choice of submitting their article by a deadline
|
or reneging on the promise implied by their review. This simplified
|
cycle of operation assumes, additionally, that consensus positions
|
can be calculated and that published articles are retained
|
indefinitely. Eliminating these assumptions requires a more
|
articulated cycle of operation and additional message types.
|
Before considering a more articulated cycle of operation, however,
|
it is necessary to note an important feature of peer review that
|
contributes to impartial judgment. This feature is a protection
|
mechanism, typically anonymity, that shields referees from pressures
|
that might be associated with evaluation of a colleague. Further,
|
names and affiliations of authors are often hidden from referees to
|
ensure that only article content is the basis for evaluation.
|
Protection can be alternatively be provided by a pseudonym system.
|
This has the advantage of reducing opportunities for irresponsible
|
behavior as compared to systems based upon anonymity (Stodolsky,
|
1990). It has a further advantage of permitting reputation
|
development through the refereeing alone, thereby making it possible
|
to establish a reputation without contributing articles.
|
When there are multiple referees, it is important that their
|
judgments are independent, so referee reports must not be made
|
available until all have been submitted. This last requirement can
|
be met by ensuring that reviews transmitted to the mediator are
|
hidden until the deadline. The dynamics and implementation of
|
protection systems are beyond the scope of this article, so only the
|
necessity for the simultaneous release of information is addressed
|
here.
|
Definition of message types
|
While in the simplest case, messages in the consensus journal
|
environment consist of only articles and reviews (Stodolsky, 1990),
|
considerations of effective negotiation and of storage management
|
suggest defining additional message types. There are five types of
|
messages transmitted in the consensus journal environment.
|
_Article
|
Articles, while shorter than those usually seen in conventional
|
journals, will most often play the same role. However, it is quite
|
possible to have an article in a consensus journal that is only a
|
few lines long, and that can only be understood in connection with
|
the review message it follows and its target article.
|
_ Review
|
Review messages must be distinguished from conventional reviews
|
because they are characterized by a vector of numbers that summarize
|
a reader's reaction to an article. If we think of articles as nodes
|
in a graph or pages in a hypertext network, then review messages are
|
the labels on arcs or links that connect the articles. Reviews can
|
go beyond merely evaluating an article, by offering to provide new
|
information that may be essential to support the target article's
|
position. Review messages also serve as a commitment to deliver a
|
justification of the reader's judgment, if invited.
|
_ Invitation
|
Invitations are public, and therefore, impossible to refuse without
|
some loss of reputation. This makes them somewhat different than
|
invitations from an editor of a journal. In effect, the invitation
|
says, "We offer you storage space for an article." Also, a person
|
may post an invitation for themselves during the negotiation stage
|
of review, if they feel confident they can support the position
|
claimed in their review message.
|
_ Cancellation
|
It is possible for an author to cancel an article, thereby releasing
|
the associated storage space. The article then goes off-line (i.e.,
|
"out of print") along with its reviews and the articles that were
|
dependent upon it for their place in storage. This would typically
|
occur during explicit negotiation after the author had seen the
|
article's reviews. It could, however, occur much later, when a new
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.