• tetris11@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    It’s a numbers game.

    • X submits paper to Journal 1, and peers A,B,C reject it.
    • X submits paper with minor changes to Journal 2, and only peers D and E reject it.
    • X submits paper with minor changes to Journal 3, and only peer G rejects it
    • X submits paper with minor changes to Journal 4, and no one rejects it.

    Journal 4 increments prestige, Scientist X increments prestige, but nothing true or good is actually gained.

    Science.

    • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      NOT science. At all. That’s publication and clout. Two things science distinctly is NOT, but needs because information must still disseminate in some way.

      • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        I believe in the scientific method. I believe in peer review.

        I just don’t like that scientific journals have become so commodified that a lesser journal would accept volumes of bad science and bad review in order to boost its rankings whilst boosting the prestige of the scientist who is measured on the quantity of their work and not the quality.

        Entire paper mills exist purely for this reason, and it’s a scourge on the scientific community.

  • xJREB@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I recently read an interesting article proposing to get rid of the current peer review system: https://www.experimental-history.com/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-peer-review

    The argument was roughly this: for the unfathomable (unpaid) hours spent on peer review, it’s not very effective. Too much bad research still gets published and too much good research gets rejected. Science would also not be a weak-link problem but a strong-link problem, i.e., scientific progress would not depend on the quality of our worst research but of that of our best research (which would push through anyway in time). Pretty interesting read, even though I find it difficult to imagine how we would transition to such a system.

  • MNByChoice@midwest.social
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    1 month ago

    The ones that fail peer review go from “unexpected result” to “the fuck were you actually doing?!?”

    • TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz
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      1 month ago

      Best part is the reviewers don’t get paid for their work, the publishers pocket all of the money they get from selling journals

      • Tja@programming.dev
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        1 month ago

        While charging researchers to publish the paper and the reader for accessing it. If they can get away with it. It’s a fucking scam, thus arxiv and others exist.

  • Psychodelic@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I’m just happy they learned what peer review means. I doubt even a third of Americans know what it means or its impact on their lives

  • arbitrary_sarcasm@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    In my field of research, there seems to be a recent push for artifact evaluation. It’s a separate process which is also optional but you get to brag about the fact that you get badges if your experiment results were replicated.

    There’s also some push back against this since it’s additional work, but I think it’s a step in the right direction.

    • Contramuffin@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Scientists can get really petty in peer review. They won’t be able to catch if the data was manipulated or faked, but they’ll be able to catch everything else. Things such as inconclusive or unconvincing data, wrongful assumptions, missing data that would complement and further prove the conclusion, or even trivial things such as a sentence being unclear.

      It generally works as long as you can trust that the author isn’t dishonest

      • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        A LOT of things work without safety nets if people engage honestly.

        The problem, with FAR more than science, is many, many people are distinctly NOT honest.

  • schloppah@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Damn I guess I was today years old. I remember in high school chemistry class we were taught about peer review and had to do it for each other, except the way we did was actually testing and replicating results, so that cemented the misconception.

  • Skalix@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Was lucky to contribute to a paper for the first time recently and was certainly suprised to see what peer reviews looked like lmao

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      1 month ago

      Is it better or worse than code reviews in programming? Typically, if it’s 5 lines, we scrutinize everything. If it’s 500 lines, it’s a quick scan with a “looks good” comment.

      • Skalix@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        I’d say its similar. Though from the limited dataset of peer reviews I have, I’d say that peer reviews are more informative / detailed while code reviews usually have way less typos lol.

  • Amerikan Pharaoh@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 month ago

    Today years old, what the fuck? Is this how so much bunk science makes it to the front-pages of supposedly-science-related websites?