> > >From EDUPAGE-
> >
> > >SCHOLARS PROPOSE STRENGTHENING PEER REVIEW ELECTRONICALLY
...
I haven't been following this thread, and I haven't seen the paper in
the Chronicle of Higher Education, so apologies if this posting is
slightly off the mark.
You may be intereted to know that an electronic peer review system
is already in place in The Cochrane Library (an electronic database
of systematic reviews of the effects of health care interventions).
The system provides guidance for commentators and encourages a
structured approach to generating comments or criticisms about the
Cochrane Reviews and protocols held within the Library.
Comments or criticisms are sent automatically to a distributed
database (with all the functionality that that implies) where they
can be accessed by the authors of the reviews (or specialist
'criticism editors') who formulate their responses, make changes to
the original Review, then allow the comments together with responses
to appear in the next issue of the Cochrane Library. This cycle of
continuous improvement and updating has led to Cochrane Reviews being
referred to as "organic documents".
Distributed database design is at the cutting edge of modern computer
programming, and with its emphasis on transparency (the USER doesn't
need to know anything about how or where the data are stored),
scaleability (the amount of information in the database can grow
without affecting performance) and fault tolerance (if something
falls over or crashes, the system automatically compensates and
re-routes requests without bothering the user) we believe it
represents a significant step forward in making on-line peer review a
viable option.
The April release of the Cochrane Library has the comments and
criticisms system activated.
Gordon Dooley
---------------------------------
Dr Gordon Dooley
Technical Director, Update Software
Summertown Pavillion, Middle Way, Summertown
Oxford, England
Email: Gordon Dooley <[log in to unmask]>
Web: http://www.cochrane.co.uk
---------------------------------
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|