[3dem] sharing em maps during peer-review process

[Reza Khayat]

Hi,

As a junior faculty I can assure everyone that I will be very reluctant to fully criticize a manuscript  if my identity as  reviewer were to be revealed to the authors. Out of curiosity, are we not reviewers ourselves?

Best wishes,
Reza

Reza Khayat, PhD
Assistant Professor
City College of New York
85 St. Nicholas Dr. CDI 12308
New York, NY 10031
(212) 650-6070
www.khayatlab.org<http://www.khayatlab.org>

On May 3, 2015, at 9:10 AM, Morgan Beeby <m.beeby at imperial.ac.uk<mailto:m.beeby at imperial.ac.uk>> wrote:

Hi all,

Thought I'd chime in to support openness, but also to respond to Sjors' comment about potential dangers of revealing one's identity as a reviewer.

In the era of intense pressure to 'succeed' as a new PI, requirement to reveal one's identity might easily lead to a junior PI holding back on full criticism in reviews of established PIs (who are likely to reciprocally review one's own manuscripts), while senior PI colleagues with less at stake (i.e., careers that don't hang on a single publication) could afford to be more open with full criticism. I'm not suggesting senior colleagues are 'out to get' junior colleagues! (indeed -- open criticism is needed to mature as scientists). But (quite possibly subconscious) self-censorship surely cannot be a good thing? Anonymous peer review circumvents any such potential power imbalance.

I've really appreciated past reviewers revealing their identity to me in person, as that has often facilitated great discussions. In my opinion, however, the system is fairest if reviewer anonymity is the default option that can be opted out of either on paper, or in person.

Morgan



On 02/05/2015 12:10, Sjors Scheres wrote:
However, revealing one's
identity as a reviewer also has a potential danger of bias towards being
less critical (perhaps especially for less established reviewers?), or the
danger of a culture where positive reviews are expected to be 'paid back'
later. Again, I think trust is the key word, and recognizing the
difficulties of every option is a good start.


--


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Morgan Beeby, Ph.D.
Lecturer in Structural Biology
Department of Life Sciences
Sir Ernst Chain Building
Imperial College London
South Kensington Campus
London SW7 2AZ
United Kingdom
(t) +44 (0)20 7594 5251
(f) +44 (0)20 7594 3057
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/people/m.beeby

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