X-Message-Number: 23474
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 06:59:13 -0500
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: re: David Stodolsky's comment re mine

A short reply to Dr. David Stodolsky:

Refereeing in any form did not exist at the time of Newton, nor at 
the later time of Gauss. Science does not require refereeing in the
form in which its currently done. As I understand it, a small minority
of journals do not require ANONYMOUS refereeing: if you referee a
paper you're also required to let the author(s) of the paper know
who you are, and if necessary answer any complaints about your
refereeing made by those author(s).

My own feelings about refereeing would be that it would be quite 
sufficient for the referees to be known to the refereed, and 
responsible for answering any complaints the refereed may have
about their opinion of a paper. The only practical way this can
be done, given human conduct, is that the referees be named when
the paper is published. It's ANONYMOUS refereeing which allows
referees to do such things as fail to read a paper and write
an opinion of it after a superficial glance.

I do not know what the Net will do to current scientific practice.
It does make it easier for almost anyone to publish, and for 
the opinions of those concerned by what he's published to become
widespread more easily --- perhaps a little like the early days
of science, when everyone knew everyone else. Is this what will
happen? I don't know. However current scientific practice
has its faults. In fact, in some ways the situation remains just
as it did in the 19th and 20th centuries: an insightful idea may
well eventually triumph just because it's insightful. But it can
easily do so after the death of the person who originally proposed
it, and even because someone else came along and rediscovered it
and then LATER we all found out that X the obscure had said the
very same thing 50 years before.

           Best wishes and long long life,

               Thomas Donaldson

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