Re: Token copensation, was: In the news (Georgia State)

Phil,

As a rule, reviewers, when they get compensated at all,
receive 
far less to review a book or article for quality than a
lawyer 
receives for reviewing the same work for liability.

Joe Esposito

----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Davis" <pmd8cornell.edu>
To: <liblicense-llists.yale.edu>; <enricomedialab.sissa.it>
Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 4:47 PM
Subject: Token copensation, was: In the news (Georgia
State)

> I'd be interested in what 'a token fee' means?  Given
that 
> reviewers claim they spend hours on each article they
review, 
> can a 'token fee' be considered ample remuneration of 
> reviewers' time and expertise?  In studies of social 
> psychology, one often gets better results from
volunteers when 
> they are not compensated than when they are compensated
badly. 
> Many medical journals publish annual lists of the
reviewers as 
> a public acknowledgment of their contribution, which
appears to 
> be an act of compensation (payment as prestige).
>
> I'd be very interested to know whether token
compensation 
> results in better reviews in JHEP.  Is anyone aware of
similar 
> reviewer compensation experiments?
>
> Philip M. Davis
> PhD Student
> Department of Communication
> 336 Kennedy Hall
> Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
> email: pmd8cornell.edu
> phone: 607 255-4735
> h
ttps://confluence.cornell.edu/display/~pmd8/resume
>
> Ann Okerson wrote:
>> Paul and all:  With respect to (not) compensating
peer reviewers, I
>> was surprised that Enrico Balli's (SISSA) message
of 3/27 apparently
>> went by without comment. I'm reproducing it here
and wondering what
>> reaction readers have to SISSA's plan.  Ann
Okerson
>>
>> ******
>>
>> From: Enrico M. Balli <enricomedialab.sissa.it>
>> Date: Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 8:36 PM
>> Subject: R: Rewarding reviewers
>> To: liblicense-llists.yale.edu
>>
>> The real value of scientific journals today is the
peer-review
>> processing. Indeed, the development of the
electronic archives has
>> diminished the importance of the scientific
journals as conveyors of
>> information, as they are no longer the main sources
of scientific
>> information. Keeping in mind these facts, SISSA
started several years
>> ago JHEP, the Journal of High Energy Physics, which
is now among the
>> journals with the highest impact factor in his
field. We believe that
>> the main reason for this success of our journal is
the high quality of
>> the peer-review process.
>>
>> Given that peer review is the most valuable asset
of journals, in the
>> spirit that scientific work should be remunerated,
we have decided to
>> allocate funds for this purpose and to pay a token
fee for every
>> referee report beginning in 2008. We strongly feel
that this new
>> practice in the policy of scientific journals is
the right step on the
>> way to further improve the quality of our peer
review process.
>>
>> Enrico M. Balli
>> Sissa Medialab
>> Via L. Stock 2/2, 34135 Trieste
>> T. +39-040-3787620
>> F. +39-040-3787615