<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><p style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px">
<font color="#000000"><a href="http://retractionwatch.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/plos-biology.png" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank"><img alt="plos biology" src="http://retractionwatch.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/plos-biology.png?w=700" width="240" height="85" style="padding-top:2px;padding-right:2px;padding-bottom:2px;padding-left:2px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:5px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:5px;float:right;border-top-color:rgb(0,133,181);border-right-color:rgb(0,133,181);border-bottom-color:rgb(0,133,181);border-left-color:rgb(0,133,181);border-top-width:2px;border-right-width:2px;border-bottom-width:2px;border-left-width:2px;border-top-style:solid;border-right-style:solid;border-bottom-style:solid;border-left-style:solid"></a>We’ve sometimes said, <a href="http://wais.stanford.edu/Democracy/democracy_DemocracyAndChurchill%28090503%29.html" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">paraphrasing Winston Churchill</a>, that pre-publication peer review is the worst way to vet science, except for all the other ways that have been tried from time to time.</font></p>
<p style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px">The authors of a new paper in <em style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">PLOS Biology</em>, <a href="http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/Adam_Eyre-Walker/Website/Welcome.html" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Adam Eyre-Walker</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/Nstoletzki" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Nina Stoletzki</a>, compared <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001675" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">three of those other ways</a> to judge more than 6,500 papers published in 2005:</p>
<blockquote style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:60px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;background-color:initial;min-height:50px"><p style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px">
<font color="#000000">subjective post-publication peer review, the number of citations gained by a paper, and the impact factor of the journal in which the article was published</font></p></blockquote><p style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px">
Their findings?<span style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"></span></p><blockquote style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:60px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;background-color:initial;min-height:50px">
<p style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px"><font color="#000000">We conclude that the three measures of scientific merit considered here are poor; in particular subjective assessments are an error-prone, biased, and expensive method by which to assess merit. We argue that the impact factor may be the most satisfactory of the methods we have considered, since it is a form of pre-publication review. However, we emphasise that it is likely to be a very error-prone measure of merit that is qualitative, not quantitative.</font></p>
</blockquote><div style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><p style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px">
(Disclosure: Ivan worked at Thomson Reuters, whose Thomson Scientific division owns the impact factor, from 2009 until the middle of this year, but was at Reuters Health, a completely separate unit of the company.)</p><p style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px">
Or, put another way, as Eyre-Walker <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/scientists-not-good-judges-of-research/story-e6frgcjx-1226734935006#sthash.11ZDHFgx.dpuf" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">told</a> <em style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">The Australian</em>:</p>
<blockquote style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:60px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;background-image:url(http://s2.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/journalist/images/quote.gif);background-color:initial;min-height:50px;background-repeat:no-repeat no-repeat">
<p style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px"><font color="#000000">Scientists are probably the best judges of science, but they are pretty bad at it.</font></p>
</blockquote><p style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px">In an <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001677" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">accompanying editorial</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/phylogenomics" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Jonathan Eisen</a>, <a href="http://www.plos.org/staff/catriona-maccallum/" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Catriona MacCallum</a>, and <a href="http://cameronneylon.net/" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Cameron Neylon</a> call the paper “important” and acknowledged that the authors found that impact factor “is probably the least-bad metric amongst the small set that they analyse,” but note some limitations:</p>
</div><blockquote style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:60px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;background-color:initial;min-height:50px"><p style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px">
<font color="#000000">The subjective assessment of research by experts has always been considered a gold standard—an approach championed by researchers and funders alike <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001677#pbio.1001677-Hochberg1" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">[3]</a>–<a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001677#pbio.1001677-US1" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">[5]</a>, despite its problems <a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001677#pbio.1001677-Smith1" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">[6]</a>. Yet a key conclusion of the study is that the scores of two assessors of the same paper are only very weakly correlated (<a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001677#pbio-1001677-box001" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">Box 1</a>). As Eyre-Walker and Stoletzki rightly conclude, their analysis now raises serious questions about this process and, for example, the ~£60 million investment by the UK Government into the UK Research Assessment Exercise (estimated for 2008), where the work of scientists and universities are largely judged by a panel of experts and funding allocated accordingly. Although we agree with this core conclusion and applaud the paper, we take issue with their assumption of “merit” and their subsequent argument that the IF (or any other journal metric) is the best surrogate we currently have.</font></p>
</blockquote><p style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:0px">We have, as Retraction Watch readers may recall, <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v480/n7378/full/480449a.html" style="padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;text-decoration:underline" target="_blank">extolled the virtues of post-publication peer review</a> before.</p>
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<h3 style="text-align:-webkit-auto;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;margin-top:3px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:3px;margin-left:0px;font-weight:bold;width:109px;float:left;background-image:none;background-color:initial;border-top-style:none;border-right-style:none;border-bottom-style:none;border-left-style:none;border-width:initial;border-color:initial;border-width:initial;border-color:initial;border-width:initial;border-color:initial;display:block;border-width:initial;border-color:initial;border-width:initial;border-color:initial">
<span style="font-size:17px">Like this:<br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr">Dr.Hugo D.Scolnik<br>Profesor Consulto Titular<br>Departamento de Computación<br>Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales<br>Universidad de Buenos Aires<br>
<a href="http://www.dc.uba.ar" target="_blank">www.dc.uba.ar</a><br>TE : +5411 4576 3359<br>Mobile: +5411 4970 6665</div>
<div dir="ltr"><p style="margin-top:6pt;background-color:white;background-repeat:initial initial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><br></span></p></div></span></h3></div></div>
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