Adventures in Ethics and Science 2008-08-12

Peer review and science.

Chad Orzel takes a commenter to task for fetishizing peer review: Saying that only peer-reviewed articles (or peer-reviewable articles) count as science only reinforces the already pervasive notion that science is something beyond the reach of "normal" people. In essence, it's saying that only scientists can do science, and that science is the exclusive province of geeks and nerds. That attitude is, I think, actively harmful to our society. It's part of why we have a hard time getting students to study math and science, and finding people to teach math and science. We shouldn't be restricting science to refereed journals, we should be trying to spread it as widely as possible. Peer review and refereed journals are a good check on science, but they do not define the essence of science. Science is, at its core, a matter of ...

read more    1 hit

more posts from Adventures in Ethics and Science