Some colleagues hate when I point this out, but for tenured/tenure-track faculty, peer review is already compensated work. It is part of the 20% of our jobs that account for service (in 'standard load' positions). - ThreadSky

emmettmacfarlane.com • 62 days ago

Some colleagues hate when I point this out, but for tenured/tenure-track faculty, peer review is already compensated work. It is part of the 20% of our jobs that account for service (in 'standard load' positions).

Reposted from Angie Rasmussen

Peer review is essential to robust, reproducible science. Peer review is work. Work should be compensated. Period.

But these costs should not be assumed by the authors. Publishers are making record profits & should invest that in their own products.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

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emmettmacfarlane.com•62 days ago

The general rule of thumb should be that you do as much peer review as you create. For every paper you send out, you should be doing 2-3 reviews.

Yes, the academic publishing industry has a huge structural profiteering problem, but 'uncompensated' peer review is at the bottom of that list. 2/n

emmettmacfarlane.com•62 days ago

The *real* problem is that publicly-subsidized research is being hidden behind radically exorbitant subscriber walls, in turn paid for by publicly-subsidized institutions like university libraries. In effect, public money is paying *twice* for research, and the public STILL doesn't have access! 3/3

emmettmacfarlane.com•62 days ago

I'd add: our system of 'open access' hasn't solved this problem, especially when that system requires authors to pay for ensuring their work is open access. That money comes from, you guessed it, research grants. So, still public money paying TWICE for research. 4/4

prangemartin.bsky.social•62 days ago

That and roughly 70% of the faculty in Canada are adjuncts who aren’t paid for Service hours.
It also means the rest of us have been doing far more of our share of internal work, like Committee work.

pikewrangler.bsky.social•62 days ago

Peer review is in your CA? I've always viewed it as a professional courtesy, even though I always maintained a similar rule of thumb as what you prescribe (about 2-3x what I publish). It's never been compensated at the four Canadian institutions I've worked at, nor formally recognized for T&P.

emmettmacfarlane.com•62 days ago

We literally report it in our annual performance reviews. I don't think it makes a difference in our scores, to be honest, but we view it as one part of our service ('service to the profession').

pikewrangler.bsky.social•62 days ago

You're very fortunate. It was something we did out of a sense of obligation to those who reviewed our mss. But I've never had it count towards performance, or for advancing through the ranks. Sitting on adjudication panels counted (e.g., NSERC), but not regular peer review. Interesting.

fdlaramee.bsky.social•62 days ago

Tenured or tenure track is the key. I've lost count of the number of peer review requests I received as a PhD candidate and postdoc -- and for years afterwards, despite the fact that I had left academia. (IIRC, I only ever accepted requests from non-commercial entities.)

emmettmacfarlane.com•62 days ago

Yep, it might be interesting and useful for grad students/postdocs to do the occasional peer review, but they should definitely feel free to decline requests.

cmacquar.bsky.social•62 days ago

What annoys me is that there are huge #'s of researchers that could not accept renumeration. I'm a federal public servant scientist. I get compensated for this like an academic, but also there's no way I can ethically/legally accept payment for this kind of work.

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