Felix Stalder wrote:
Why would editorial rating allow us to publish more papers?
Since this is not a paper publication, we can publish as many as
we want anyway. Editorial rating would allow us to publish some
papers, but grade them poorly, flagging them as 'barely good
enough'. We shouldn't do this. We should publish only papers
that we agree are fit for publication.
I agree with this: even if there are many problems with
traditional peer review, what I like is that once something is
accepted, the journal stands by it fully and I think this is
something we should do too.
Reader ratings are different. That might useful form of feedback.
As for changes, I rather give authors a possibility to reply to
the feedback they get after publication. It's more transparent.
If they want to publish a substantially new version, they can do
so as a new paper.
This is an interesting idea and also reminds me of a question I
have about how we might conduct our peer review. First, my
apologies if this has already been raised. I have been trying to
catch up with the list, have only skimmed the First Monday
article on peer review and the like but have had a tough few
weeks traveling and living between two cities and am not
completely caught up.
I was also wondering if the peer reviewers will touch base with
each other about their reader reports before sending them to the
editor/author and using that conversation as an opportunity to
reassess the reports. I have always found one of the strange
things about reviews is how you can get a glowing review, a
lukewarm one, and finally one that is downright nasty. A
conversation between reviewers might be a good way to push
against some of the shortcomings of an individual reviewing
social science/humanities texts where there is a great deal of
judgment along the axis of personal taste that goes into
assessing the strength of an essay.
As per updating a paper: I see no reason why there can't be a
new version, although we would also probably have to have some
sort of vetting process and I do worry about overburdening the
readers/members of the journal doing the reviews.
Again apologies if this has been raised,
Biella
****************************************************
Gabriella Coleman, Assistant Professor
Department of Media, Culture, & Communication
New York University
239 Greene St, 7th floor
NY NY 10003
212-992-7696
http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/Gabriella_Coleman
______________________________
http://www.oekonux.org/journal