Slashdot Mirror
Peer Review Highly Sensitive To Poor Refereeing
$RANDOMLUSER writes "A new study described at Physicsworld.com claims that a small percentage of shoddy or self-interested referees can have a drastic effect on published article quality. The research shows that article quality can drop as much as one standard deviation when just 10% of referees do not behave 'correctly.' At high levels of self-serving or random behavior, 'the peer-review system will not perform much better than by accepting papers by throwing (an unbiased) coin.' The model also includes calculations for 'friendship networks' (nepotism) between authors and reviewers. The original paper, by a pair of complex systems researchers, is available at arXiv.org. No word on when we can expect it to be peer reviewed."
Yeah Slashdot is a peer-reviewed website, and has exactly the same flaws as described in the article. You've been assigned a (0). Slashdot's mod system is basically just "+1 I Agree" or "-1 I Disagree". I don't see why it even exists, because the same purpose kind be achieved via posting.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall