The Rise and Fall of Peer Review

Research publications are some of the world’s most important repositories for content and information ever created. They tie ideas and findings together across time and disciplines, and are forever preserved by a network of libraries. They are supported by evidence, analysis, expert insight, and statistical relationships. They are extremely valuabl... See more

Papers are at the whims of the editors, who can tend to be more conservative in the kinds of ideas they approve. This can easily lead to bias based on what the editors think are “important” issues, especially when it comes to issues that affect marginalized/lower socioeconomic groups.

Nadia Eghbal: It’s not just the discovery of knowledge (i.e., learning new things) that’s easier now, but also the validation (where your peers, rather than an accredited institution, decide whether your insights are worth discussing) and distribution of knowledge. Sharing new ideas previously required working with centralized gatekeepers, like a u... See more