Open Access in the News: “Who’s Afraid of Peer Review?”


Infograph: How Much Science Is There? (Click to expand)
As part of the same issue that published the above infograph, Science also published an investigative piece by John Bohannon, “Who’s Afraid of Peer Review?” which has made national news.

Peter Suber, provides an excellent summary about what can and cannot be concluded from Bohannon’s paper. “But apart from what the article does and doesn’t show, it will have consequences for the perception of OA journals and the perception of OA itself. I’m afraid it will have these consequences apart from what the article does and doesn’t actually show… Bohannon is not responsible for these widespread, pre-existing misunderstandings. But his conclusions combine badly with them, especially when he is not careful in drawing his conclusions or in characterizing OA.”

SPARC has also issued a summary of the response, which highlights the absence of a control group in the study.

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