Totally agree. The issue is amplified enormously in NZ, where academics claim their “NZ context is unique’ (even when overseas research in that area is prolific), and experts in a specific area are either non-existent or on first name terms with the author. I’ve had interesting (Australasian) peer-review experiences recently, reading articles from academics apparently completely unaware of the intense censorship over the past 3 years. I suppose you never know until you are censored yourself. The editors in these journals have an impossible job in presenting what are likely to be 2 totally contradictory reviews. The system was already flawed, but now is finished, imho.
Verified. I've been in and around academic research for most of my life, and I've seen the problem growing and metastasizing since 1970. It's been discussed and bemoaned inside academia for all of that time, but never improved or changed.
The odd part is that outside writers don't seem to grasp the seriousness of the problem, even though most outside writers have been in academia at one point or another. I doubt they're naive; more likely they also want to keep it going.
It has been over a year since you wrote this, Doc. But very little has changed on the ground.
https://jessicar.substack.com/p/the-peer-review-process-needs-a-fix
The problem with standards doesn’t extend beyond open access journals? It doesn’t seem fair to single them out.
I'm not talking about open-access journals.
As far as I can tell, the only thing unique about OA is that they charge a huge premium to publish your work.
Totally agree. The issue is amplified enormously in NZ, where academics claim their “NZ context is unique’ (even when overseas research in that area is prolific), and experts in a specific area are either non-existent or on first name terms with the author. I’ve had interesting (Australasian) peer-review experiences recently, reading articles from academics apparently completely unaware of the intense censorship over the past 3 years. I suppose you never know until you are censored yourself. The editors in these journals have an impossible job in presenting what are likely to be 2 totally contradictory reviews. The system was already flawed, but now is finished, imho.
Verified. I've been in and around academic research for most of my life, and I've seen the problem growing and metastasizing since 1970. It's been discussed and bemoaned inside academia for all of that time, but never improved or changed.
The odd part is that outside writers don't seem to grasp the seriousness of the problem, even though most outside writers have been in academia at one point or another. I doubt they're naive; more likely they also want to keep it going.