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criticism was delivered.
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_Withdrawal
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Finally, during explicit negotiations, a review may be withdrawn.
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This eliminates the referee from those prepared to respond to an
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invitation.
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Cycle of operation
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The sequence of events with a consensus journal is the same as with
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an invitational journal. The review method, however, involves the
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entire readership, or at least those who offer a judgment. New
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authors are then selected based upon the review judgements. While
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most articles will follow from reviews and be connected to their
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target articles, independent articles are also permitted. However,
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articles posted without consensus based invitations are less likely
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to be read and can not be assumed to have support of other referees.
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If we assume that a consensus journal is already functioning, we can
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follow the events through a cycle of operation that starts with
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reading of an article. While it is not essential for smaller
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readerships, we assume that participants exchange information
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electronically.
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All readers are presented with a target article at the same time. A
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reader offers a review judgment in order to be considered for future
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authorship. The review message must be received before a certain
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deadline, say one week later. The review message consists of scores
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along several preselected dimensions. For instance, a scientific
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article is expected to be relevant, correct, and original. A more
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conversational approach might include the dimensions completeness,
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clarity, and appropriateness.
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At the deadline, the mediator runs a statistical procedure to
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determine if there are consensus positions among the referees. The
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most central referee from each of these positions is invited to
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submit a new article. These most central referees are also
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considered most knowledgeable, within the framework of cultural
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consensus theory. D'Andrade (1987) discusses the evidence supporting
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this view.
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Cultural consensus theory is based on the assumptions of common
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truth (i. e., there is a fixed answer pattern "applicable" to all
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referees), of local independence (i.e., the referee-dimension
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response variables satisfy conditional independence), and of
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homogeneity of items (i.e., each respondent has a fixed "cultural
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competence" over all dimensions) (Romney, Weller & Batchelder,
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1986). Results can be obtained with as few as three respondents, but
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four are required if the significance of the results are to be
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calculated (i. e., a degree of freedom is then available in the
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statistical model) (Batchelder & Romney, 1988). A recent development
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in the model is the ability to identify two consensual groupings
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within the population of respondents (Romney, Weller & Batchelder,
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1987) This is extremely helpful since it permits a minority to
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publicize their viewpoint under the same conditions as a majority.
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Cultural consensus theory assumes that we have no _a priori_
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knowledge about referees, that is, they have no reputations. This is
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extremely valuable when a new topic comes up or when there are
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violation of assumptions required for calculations concerning a
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current article based upon previous information (Stodolsky, 1984b).
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Given that reputations have developed and assumptions are satisfied,
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however, the theory requires elaboration to be applied most
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effectively. Cultural consensus theory provides, in effect, a cross
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sectional estimation of competence. That is, given a sample of
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responses at a given moment, relative competence is estimated. On
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the other hand, given a performance history, Bayesian estimation can
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be used to assess the relative importance of different persons'
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judgments. That is, there are reputations that give information
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about relative competence independent of the current responses. This
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assumes stationarity, that is, that the same area of competence is
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required for correct response, and that responses are generated in
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the same manner (e. g., respondents continue to give honest
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answers). Both methods are based upon likelihood estimation,
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therefore, a combined theory should be achievable. The combined
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sources of information would likely make achieving an implicit
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consensus more frequent.
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The mediator issues an invitation report showing submitted
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judgments, the degree of consensus achieved, the number of consensus
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positions identified, degree of knowledge of each referee, and so
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on. If consensus has been reached, invited referees are expected to
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submit articles.
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Negotiation must proceed explicitly if no consensus can be
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identified (Figure 2). In that case, referees may look at the
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judgments submitted and decide if their positions have sufficient
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support. If not, they could reconsider their review judgments, and
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either revise them or withdraw from the review process. The author
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of an article might, on the basis of these judgments, cancel an
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article, thus avoiding potential reputation damaging criticism.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------
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------ R: Review ------- M: Invitation -------
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| Read |----------->| Calc. |--------------->| Write |----------->
|
------ ------- ------- R: Article
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^ | |
|
R: Review | | M: No consensus | R: Renege
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