[Buddha-l] Conservative and liberal Buddhists

[Vera, Pedro L.]

________________________________________
Richard Hayes wrote 

>In the humanities reviewing can be whimsical and even a bit nasty at times. 

I'm afraid that this is also the case in science, although I would change the tone to "downright" rather a bit. 

>Twice I have been involved in assessing project proposals for the NEH and have been struck by how some >people (a small minority) use anonymous reviews to promote their own prejudices.

I agree, and I don't know how small such a minority may be. I think that the tighter the funding, the nastier the anonymous reviews get since everyone is fighting for the same limited resources (sort of a Malthusian problem, really).

>My father published a lot of articles and monographs on geology, and I can recall him commenting that even >scientists can be petty in their reviews. Perhaps it is a feature of being human to hide behind anonymity to >promote one's pet prejudices.

Some (very few) open-access journals in science use a signed reviews format which does tend to temper the nature of the comments somewhat. I think it would be ideal to have ALL reviews (whether for publication or for proposals) completely transparent to the actual individual reviewers. However, I think it's unlikely to happen since it would probably be argued that it would hinder frank and honest discussions.

I recall reading recently something the Dalai Lama said about being grateful for people who insult us or injure us since we can then actually practice compassion, patience and forbearance. In that sense then, the blinded review system appears invaluable! (this is the required Buddhist content of post, by the way).

Regards,

Pedro





_______________________________________________
buddha-l mailing list
buddha-l at mailman.swcp.com
http://mailman.swcp.com/mailman/listinfo/buddha-l