新编文档-MEASURINGQUALITYINACADEMICPUBLICATION测量在学术出版质量-精品文档

1、MEASURING QUALITY IN ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONFrederick J. FriendJISC Consultant OSI Open Access Advocate Honorary Director Scholarly Communication UCL f.frienducl.ac.ukWHY DO WE HAVE QUALITY CONTROL IN ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS?Quality control is important to authors, to funders (including the taxpayer), to

2、 publishers and to readers 一 i.e. to all stakeholders Authors need quality control for self-respect, for academic credit and as a stimulus to further researchFunding agencies need quality control for accountability and taxpayers need reassurance that their money is being spent wisely Publishers need

3、 quality control for self-respect and for professional and commercial successReaders need quality control to know that they can trust what they readFor authors constructive feedback from an editor or a reviewer on a manuscript is usually a positive experience, but the barrier of anonymity between au

4、thor and reviewer can be frustrating when brief, negative comments are receivedWhat does a terse comment such as “interesting" mean?If reviewer comments “could be treated in greater depth”，the author wants to ask “in what respect?"Reviewers usually receive no financial recompense for their

5、 work nor any academic recompense for their comments when their comments are anonymousAuthors are uforcedn into publish!ng in ISMated journals because quality control perceived to be related to impact factorHOW SUCCESSFUL IS THE PRESENT SYSTEM IN MEETING THE NEEDS OF STAKEHOLDERS?2. FUNDERS INCLUDIN

6、G TAXPAYERS 丿Assurance to funders comes through the reputation of the journal, trusting that a high-impact factor journal will use editors and reviewers of high qualityIn many cases this system meets the funders5 requirements, but concem arises when the system fails, as in “The Lancet” MMR article (

7、suspicion that there are more examples of this type of failure) Basic flaw that there is no transparency of responsibility : the system relies upon trust with no checksAlso no transparency on cost of the peer-review system : how much does it cost publishers? (N.B. no competition in peer-review servi

8、ce 一 publishers do not out-source the service and invite tenders) Reliance upon ISI ratings enables publishers to charge higher prices for high impact-factor journals: bad for the taxpayerHOW SUCCESSFUL IS THE PRESENT SYSTEM IN MEETING THE NEEDS OF STAKEHOLDERS?3. PUBLISHERS 丿Present peer-review sys

9、tem very successful for publishers : low cost and low riskUsually no payment made to academic reviewersAnonymity of reviewers reduces risk of legal action or public exposureHowever, publishers often find it difficult to recruit unpaid editors and reviewersDominance of ISI ratings makes it difficult

10、for new publishers to enter the marketHOW SUCCESSFUL IS THE PRESENT SYSTEM IN MEETING THE NEEDS OF STAKEHOLDERS?4. READERS jVFor readers as for funders the assurance of quality of an article lies in the quality of the journal, as indicated by its impact factorIn many cases this meets the reader'

11、s requirements, but system based entirely upon trust in journaPs editors and peer-reviewers with no independent checksSUMMARY OF PRESENT PEER-REVIEW SYSTEMGood for established publishers with highly-rated journalsBad for publishers trying to enter the marketGood for authors when it works wellProbabl

12、y mostly good for funders but system relies upon trust without checks on quality or cost of systemHigh cost without competition bad for taxpayersHOW COULD PEER-REVIEW IN ACADEMIC PUBLICATION BE IMPROVED?Could the model used by "Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics” provide a better service? (see U

13、lrich Poschl article in Learned Publishing (2019) 17, 105-113)Uses interactive peer-review (provides feedback for authors, transparency for funders and readers, and credit for reviewers) Ben efits publisher by drawi ng attention to possible new reviewers Reviewers can remain anonymous but generally

14、choose not to System works because it uses the opportunity provided by the in ternet for inter-activityEven if this model is not transferable to other journals in detail, it dem on strates that new forms of quality control are possible and can bring ben efitsHOW COULD THE MEASUREMENT OF QUALITY BE I

15、MPROVED?At present universal reliance upon ISI citation and impact factor measureme ntsEnglish-language bias in ISI journal selection makes journals in other languages appear to be of lower qualityNeed for citation measurement of open access content: will Google Scholar provide this?Need for more competitors to enter the market, either commercial or public sectorMore emphasis upon measurement of quality of the article rather than measurement of qua