Nature Ends Open Peer Review Experiment
Scientific journal Nature has announced plans to abandon an online experiment, which allowed scientists to comment on their peers’ research before publication, due to lack of participation.
In a four-month trial, which began in June, a group of select scholars reviewed scientific manuscripts and decided what should appear in print. In the experiment, authors whose manuscripts were selected for traditional peer review could also opt to have them simultaneously posted on the Internet for feedback from scientists.
According to the British publication, although the experiment generated high online traffic, it was ultimately canceled because only a few authors participated and many of the online comments were nothing more than nice work.
Published by an arm of Macmillan Publishers Ltd., Nature is highly selective of the research it publishes. Of the 10,000 papers it receives every year, the journal rejects nearly 60 percent, and only about 7 percent of submissions are published.
From Knowledgespeak, 12/25/06
