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10/10/2016

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Muhammad Velji

I still don't quite understand the argument against paying referees. Of course for online journals and open access journals this would be prohibitive. I get that. One could even say the labour that goes into reviewing could be thought of as contributing to the open access, but let's put that to one side.

With the obscene profits these companies make, the LEAST they could do is pay for labour. It feels inherently wrong that this should be volunteer work. I've never been considered a contract theorist but at least with money involved maybe the referee will feel obligated to finish on time and give a reasonable amount of feedback, rather than put it on the absolute back burner. It's almost irrational NOT to put refereeing on the back burner when it's a voluntary activity, because I am being compensated to do the other work I agreed to do.

I'm really trying hard to be charitable toward the argument against paying referees but I am having a hard time linking conflict of interests with money here, especially with the new triple blind system going on these days.

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Here's a link to my past blogging (and discussions involving me) at: New APPS.

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