review reform: Why bother with peer review?
Peer review is not without its flaws, but improving peer review first requires careful testing of alternative systems, and demonstrating empirically that these alternatives are at least as effective as classical peer review in maintaining the quality of the refereed literature (such as it is). No alternatives have yet been tested or demonstrated effective. Hence current peer review reform or elimination proposals are merely speculative hypotheses at this time, and red herrings insofar as the freeing of the peer-reviewed literature is concerned: The self-archiving initiative is directed at freeing the current peer-reviewed literature, such as it is, from the impact/access barriers of Subscription/License/Pay-per-view access-tolls, now. It is not directed at freeing the literature from peer review, or at testing or implementing untested alternatives to peer review (Cf. http://library.caltech.edu/publications/ScholarsForum/042399sharnad.htm and http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Ebiomed/c
