This is a nice paper on scientific publishing reform with a great history section. However, I think it poses a dichotomy that is incorrect and an obstacle to achieving lasting and meaningful reform, between unadorned preprint servers and formal review. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... - ThreadSky

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neuralreckoning.bsky.social • 2 days ago

This is a nice paper on scientific publishing reform with a great history section.

However, I think it poses a dichotomy that is incorrect and an obstacle to achieving lasting and meaningful reform, between unadorned preprint servers and formal review.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2401231121

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neuralreckoning.bsky.social•2 days ago

Specifically: that we must have either unadorned preprint servers where you have no extra information to evaluate the paper, as a reader; or some sort of formal review process ending in a structured endorsement of the paper. These are not the only options and both models have significant drawbacks.

neuralreckoning.bsky.social•2 days ago

Unadorned preprint servers give little to no mechanism for the community to give feedback - evaluative or otherwise.

neuralreckoning.bsky.social•2 days ago

Models of formal endorsement share all the problems of journals, that is based on a time limited judgement from a small number of overworked reviewers, and once given the endorsement is not sensitive to subsequent commentary unless it is formally retracted.

neuralreckoning.bsky.social•2 days ago

Instead, we just need systems that make it easy for the scientific community to give feedback on papers that is prominently displayed and summarised every time the paper is accessed.

neuralreckoning.bsky.social•2 days ago

Technically, this is a very simple and inexpensive thing to do, and it would solve almost all the problems we face. The challenge is largely to do with changing scientific culture.

johnparkhill.bsky.social•2 days ago

Many of the people leaving academia for the priv. sec. got tired of contributing to the paper mill, and wanted to focus more on substantial work. If introspective academic studies regarded the productivity of research in private enterprises on an even footing, they might reform more rapidly.

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