[Corpora-List] Corpora Digest, Vol 52, Issue 27: publishing lists of rejected and accepted papers

[John F. Sowa]

On 10/17/2011 3:32 AM, Anne Schumann wrote:
> I personally feel that science is quite a competitive area and there's
> no shame in publicly announcing results (as is common practice in
> sports or music competitions).

First, there is no comparison between the two.  Sports events are
explicitly designed to be competitions for the entertainment of the
spectators. Everybody, including the  reporters, can see what happens.

Second, science by nature should *not* be competitive.  Most of the
best science is cooperative.  This list is an example of researchers
who are freely sharing information.  Whatever competition arises is
caused by the limited resources available for slots in a schedule
or funding for grant proposals.

Third, I recall some horror stories from one institution that had
a policy of making a linear ranking of all researchers.  It created
a cut-throat competition, in which some people actually sabotaged
some of their neighbors' projects.  The anecdote I heard was that
somebody loosened the joints in some chemical apparatus and caused
a small explosion when it was used.

On 10/17/2011 4:46 AM, Patrick Paroubek wrote:
> The publication of statistics on the papers published raises already
> enough controversies in the world of science without adding the
> possibility to create more by giving the means to people to generate
> statistics on the near misses at job applications.

I completely agree.

On 10/17/2011 7:38 AM, Leon Derczynski wrote:
> If there's a malicious reviewer for your topic on the board for
> Prestigious Journal A, being able to submit to Prestigious Journal B
> will serve to both get one's work reviewed fairly and maybe even
> perhaps appropriately reduce the quality/volume of work published in A.

Most reviewers aren't deliberately malicious, but a perfectly fair
review of innovative ideas is very difficult.  It is hard enough
for a young researcher to get into a field, and a few accepted
publications can help.  But it is counterproductive to burden
them with a record of rejections that might not be justified.

That raises the question of objective vs subjective criteria.
For most sports events, the winner is determined by some
objective score.  But others have judges, who are sometimes
biased or prejudiced or inexperienced.

I recall one Olympian skater who switched from figure skating to
speed skating with the explanation "I don't want to participate
in any sport that has judges."

On 10/17/2011 8:06 AM, Anne Schumann wrote:
> it would seem fairer to me, if the authors also had a right to anonymity.

Fine.  Let's agree that the scores of the rejected papers be published,
but without listing the titles or authors.

John

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