MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Scholarly publications better in electronic form

kovidgoyal · 11-09-2007, 01:40 PM

It's true, the reputation of the author definitely plays a part in the review process. Certainly, it does when I'm reviewing. However, I think that it shouldn't. Ideally, a referee is supposed to judge the merit of a paper on its own. Indeed, being overawed by the reputation of the authors can lead to problems, since there is no reason why famous people can't make mistakes.

EDIT: In fact, it should be the job of the editor to worry about the reputation of the author when deciding whether to accept an article based on the referee reports or not.

11-09-2007, 01:40 PM	#29
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,450 Karma: 27757438 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	It's true, the reputation of the author definitely plays a part in the review process. Certainly, it does when I'm reviewing. However, I think that it shouldn't. Ideally, a referee is supposed to judge the merit of a paper on its own. Indeed, being overawed by the reputation of the authors can lead to problems, since there is no reason why famous people can't make mistakes. EDIT: In fact, it should be the job of the editor to worry about the reputation of the author when deciding whether to accept an article based on the referee reports or not.