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Authors’ names have ‘astonishing’ influence on peer reviewers: study

nature.com

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Re: Authors’ names have ‘astonishing’ influence on peer reviewers: study

#4
Is it any different to podcasts, concerts, and books?

People will choose what they listen, see, or read heavily based on who the performer is.

A performer who has consistently given good content will obviously have a bigger pull than a nobody still trying to get their first break.

Re: Authors’ names have ‘astonishing’ influence on peer reviewers: study

#5
post #4

Is it any different to podcasts, concerts, and books? People will choose what they listen, see, or read heavily based on who the performer is. A performer who has consistently given good content will obviously have a bigger pull than a nobody still trying to get their first break.

Podcasts, concerts and books are something we review subjectively. Scientific articles one would expect would be reviewed objectively.

Re: Authors’ names have ‘astonishing’ influence on peer reviewers: study

#6
It seems to me that some subjects are so specialized that the group that makes up one's 'peers' is fairly small. How do they have real anonymized reviews when it becomes easy to recognize the writings of the author? The more papers that someone writes, the easier it would be for their peers to recognize the writing style and other quirks that would give the author away.

Re: Authors’ names have ‘astonishing’ influence on peer reviewers: study

#7

How is double blind not the norm? there is just too much room for bias

Past performance is a reasonable indicator in a lot of situations. I've had this discussion in the context of conference submittals. While there are lots of reasons to be inclusive of new presenters, the reality is that I also want to be aware as a conference committee member of applicants who have been very popular in the past.

Re: Authors’ names have ‘astonishing’ influence on peer reviewers: study

#8

It seems to me that some subjects are so specialized that the group that makes up one's 'peers' is fairly small. How do they have real anonymized reviews when it becomes easy to recognize the writings of the author? The more papers that someone writes, the easier it would be for their peers to recognize the writing style and other quirks that would give the author away.

From what I hear, in many fields the "peers" are better thought of as "rivals".

Re: Authors’ names have ‘astonishing’ influence on peer reviewers: study

#9
post #3

"A Nobel prizewinner is six times more likely than someone less well known to get a thumbs-up for acceptance, finds study." Lifehack discovered: legally change your name to that of a Nobel prizewinner if pursuing academia.

Old news from 2016

Jobseekers with Anglo-Saxon, easy to pronounce and common names are the most likely to get to the interview stage compared to candidates with unfamiliar names, according to research by the Australian National University published in the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/unusual-nam...

Re: Authors’ names have ‘astonishing’ influence on peer reviewers: study

#10

It seems to me that some subjects are so specialized that the group that makes up one's 'peers' is fairly small. How do they have real anonymized reviews when it becomes easy to recognize the writings of the author? The more papers that someone writes, the easier it would be for their peers to recognize the writing style and other quirks that would give the author away.

From what I hear, in many fields the "peers" are better thought of as "rivals".

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