Is peer review a good idea?

Heesen, Remco ORCID: 0000-0003-3823-944X and Bright, Liam Kofi ORCID: 0000-0001-5450-8748 (2020) Is peer review a good idea? British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 1 - 31. ISSN 0007-0882

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Abstract

Prepublication peer review should be abolished. We consider the effects that such a change will have on the social structure of science, paying particular attention to the changed incentive structure and the likely effects on the behaviour of individual scientists. We evaluate these changes from the perspective of epistemic consequentialism. We find that where the effects of abolishing prepublication peer review can be evaluated with a reasonable level of confidence based on presently available evidence, they are either positive or neutral. We conclude that on present evidence abolishing peer review weakly dominates the status quo.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://academic.oup.com/bjps
Additional Information:	© 2020 The Authors
Divisions:	Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
Date Deposited:	29 Jul 2019 15:54
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 01:50
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/101242

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