RE: [xmca] FW: New PhD comic for 08/05/09!

["Peter Smagorinsky" <smago@uga.edu>]

Briefly....I will paraphrase Churchill's remarks about capitalism: Peer
review the worst system imaginable, except for all the others. 

I thought that the comic/cartoon/manga was well-done in that it laid out
some pretty contentious issues in a short narrative without undermining any
of the positions presented. So I didn't so much take away anything from the
comic/cartoon/manga as I thought that it effectively laid out a dilemma.

I'll just repeat that I'm a former journal editor and frequent reviewer for
journals, and value the peer review system. It makes my work better by
providing my work with critical readings. If I don't like them or think that
they or the editor is misguided, I can take my paper elsewhere; but if I
feel that the editors and reviewers are in synch with my goals and have
something to offer me, I can stay with their guidance and try again.

Others may disagree, in which case open access forums should serve their
purposes well. p

Peter Smagorinsky
Professor of English Education 
Department of Language and Literacy Education
The University of Georgia
125 Aderhold Hall
Athens, GA 30602
smago@uga.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of Mike Cole
Sent: Saturday, August 08, 2009 9:03 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] FW: New PhD comic for 08/05/09!

What message do you take away from the cartoon, Peter?
Publishers for sure should not be the gatekeepers.
And peer review is often flawed.
But then what?

For many years,what is now MCA was a newsletter. A print discussion forum
before the internet evolved as it has.
Then, at Yrjo's urging, it became a print journal, now with online version
if you pay for the print (ask Andy about the
joys of this arrangement) and many people, at present the most burdened of
whom is Wolf-Michael and staff at LCHC,
plus lots of xmca-ites and other reviewers produce MCA. The argument Yrjo
used to get the newsletter to journal status
was that the field and the careers of individuals working in it required
institutionalized recognition. The most recent
version of his is the struggle for ISI status to satisfy the current
generation of bean counters.

It would be easy as pie to chuck all this and have xmca be re-organized so
that people could publish long papers with open
access and no reviewing, so that members of xmca would simply have a long
list of "papers for discussion" and quality would
equal what was discussed a lot.

No ISI, no blind peer commentary. Just agor uber alles. A lot less work for
editors, managing editors, and reviewers.

Preferable?
mike

On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 2:09 PM, Peter Smagorinsky <smago@uga.edu> wrote:

> This cartoon seems pertinent to some discussions here about academic
review
> processes and publication impact. p
>
>
> From: PhD Comics [mailto:new_comic@phdcomics.com]
> Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 2:49 PM
> To: mailinglist2@phdcomics.com
> Subject: New PhD comic for 08/05/09!
>
> Hi!
>
> A new 'Piled Higher & Deeper' comic strip has been posted at:
>
>  http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?n=1208
>
> Enjoy!
>
>
> --
> To unsubscribe to this mailing list, go to:
>  www.phdcomics.com/comics/subscribe.html
>
>
>
>
> (2)
>
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