Re:No One Peer-Reviews Scientific Software
by tel on Monday November 30, 2009 @11:19PM
(#969219)
Regardless of the state of the current process, how could review become anything but better from increased openness?
Increased openness is definitely a direction scientific computing needs to move toward. The trick is conflating that with "peer review" which often, for all its merit, is strongly tied to red tape and frustration. It's impossible to peer review software not because it's impossible to verify techniques but because without some level of trust somewhere it becomes impossible to publish, to communicate.
There's definitely a startup in there. There are tons of opportunities to kill off scientific journals as they are.
The challenge is that you can't kill peer review at the same time. Peer review is still, at the end of the day, critical. It's not a holy sword of truth but instead more like rinsing your plates in the sink before you throw them in the washing machine.
Increased openness is definitely a direction scientific computing needs to move toward. The trick is conflating that with "peer review" which often, for all its merit, is strongly tied to red tape and frustration. It's impossible to peer review software not because it's impossible to verify techniques but because without some level of trust somewhere it becomes impossible to publish, to communicate.
There's definitely a startup in there. There are tons of opportunities to kill off scientific journals as they are.
The challenge is that you can't kill peer review at the same time. Peer review is still, at the end of the day, critical. It's not a holy sword of truth but instead more like rinsing your plates in the sink before you throw them in the washing machine.