Pharma Blog Watch

Journal's Failed Experiment (In the Pipeline)
In his blog, Derek Lowe writes about the six-month experiment conducted by Nature to allow online peer review of published studies. "Despite enthusiasm for the concept, open peer review was not widely popular, either among authors or by scientists invited to comment," the journal's December 2006 wrap-up article states.

"The experiment has ended, and Nature is through with the idea of open peer review for now," Lowe writes. "But you still have to wonder if there's merit there — and if so, what flaws led to this underwhelming performance."

"I'd like to suggest one gigantic, ground-shaking factor, which sat right down and made itself at home immediately: lack of anonymity. Does anyone doubt that one reason that traditional peer review works (to the extent that it does) is its anonymous format? Would people be willing to say the things that they do about papers that they're refereeing if they knew that the authors would have their email address and phone number?" he continues. "I sure wouldn't."