April 2, 2008
Blog vs. Peer Review Finale: Some Positive Results, but the Approach Probably Won't Catch On Widely
Over the past couple of months, we’ve been reporting on an experiment in using an academic blog to peer-review a scholarly book. The results are in, and we have an update today in The Chronicle.
Noah Wardrip-Fruin, an assistant professor of communication at the University of California at San Diego, has been posting the draft of his latest academic book online, piece by piece over a number of weeks, and letting anyone critique it. Though a couple of other academic authors have tried similar open peer reviews in the past on stand-alone Web sites, Mr. Wardrip-Fruin’s was unusual because it used an existing academic blog.
Mr. Wardrip-Fruin feels that the experiment was a success, though he notes that the model probably won’t replace traditional peer review. But he says today on the Grand Text Auto blog that replacing peer review was never his intent — he was simply interested in comparing the results and improving his book. —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Wednesday April 2, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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I have NOT seen clear statements (perhaps because they are not possible yet) on effects of blog-review on the demeaning, conformist, political-correction effects of “peers”. Creative contribution histories of every field have demonstrated home runs coming from outside peer review circles due to the power of these conformist, etc. effects. If blog review helped in this regard it would be worth much further experimentation.
— Richard Tabor Greene Apr 3, 05:58 AM #
Writing for Professional Publication in National Refereed Journals
A Session for Faculty and Doctoral Students
California State University, San Bernardino
April 3, 2008
William Allan Kritsonis, PhD
Professor
PhD Program in Educational Leadership
Prairie View A&M University/The Texas A&M University System
1. Professional reasons for writing for publication
2. Personal reasons for writing for publication
3. How real writers behave
4. Writer’s write for the following reasons
5. How to get started
6. What will “sell†the editor on your work?
7. Formula: Brilliant Ideas + Good Luck + Knowing the Right People = Publication
8. On scholarly work
9. Reasons to write and publish journal articles
10. Writing and publishing journal articles enables you to…
11. Three basic types of articles: practical – review or theoretical – research
12. Quantitative Studies
13. Qualitative Research
14. On writing books
15. Four phases of book publishing (Fun – Drudgery – Torture – Waiting)
16. Some reasons to write a book
17. Where does the dollar go after a book is published?
18. What do editors and reviewers really want?
19. Earning approval from editors and reviewers
20. What to remember about bad writing
21. How to get fired as a reviewer
22. Publish or perish or teach or impeach
23. I’ve been rejected many times – should I give up?
24. In writing, how you read is important
25. How teachable is writing?
26. “I can’t seem to tell how my writing is going while I am doing it. Can you help?
27. Remember your purpose in writing
28. What differentiates ordinary writing from writing with style
29. It must get somewhat easier to write, otherwise, how would some authors become so prolific?
30. If writing for publication does not prove to be lucrative, why bother?
31. Why creative work is worthwhile
32. Show respect for your writing. It is about what the readers should know. If this puts a strain on a professional relationship, then so be it.
33. “Why I Write†(Orwell) Sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and political purpose.
34. What really makes an academic write?
35. The Writer’s Essential Tools – words and the power to face unpleasant facts.
36. No human activity can sap the strength from body and life from spirit as much as writing in which one doesn’t believe.
37. “Because it was there.†Edmund Hillary. And with this comment he supplied generations with a ready-made and unanswerable defense for any new undertaking even writing.
38. Why we write.
39. Climbing Your Own Mountain
40. Be yourself. Have fun writing.
— William Allan Kritsonis, PhD Apr 19, 01:32 AM #