[JoPP-Public] JoPP-Public Digest, Vol 3, Issue 4

Fri Apr 13 20:19:58 CEST 2012

Hi everyone!

A quick note concerning the signaling system.

I dont have any strong opinions on how we implement the signals, principally because, I believe that we are tricking ourselves in thinking that the signaling system will push reputation costs from the journal to the authors. This is for the same reason that we are now pondering over how to best present the signals at the front of the webpage. The learning curve for readers is too steep, given the amount of time and attention they are likely to spend on internalising the new system. They will encounter our journal as they have learned to encounter any other, not bothering too much about the signals (wherever they find them, at the top or the bottom of the page), and definitively not sit down to read the short policy text where we explain our rationale behind having signals. Thus they will put all the reputation cost on the journal if they encounter a crappy article. That is my five cents. A readers commentary seems much more warranted, as that is a tried and tested method from Slashdot and elsewhere, recognisable to the readers, and it is useful for breaking the autocracy/arbitrariness of the two/three reviewers commenting on the article (a power only reinforced by the signaling system). Sorry for making this observation so far down the road, but it has become really concrete to me in the process of curating the special issue on hardware/bio-hacking.

all the best
Johan Söderberg