Peer Review Anonymity

[David Curtis]

berezin at MCMAIL.CIS.MCMASTER.CA (Alexander Berezin) wrote:
>Once again, I invite you to present your argument(s) towards 
>the discussion of PRO and CON of peer review anonymity. 
>Should you (or anyone else for this matter) will come up with 
>some truly strong and unbeatable arguments in favor of APR 
>I will be more than happy to admit that I have missed something 
>fundamental for the argument in favor of APR.

I review papers from people who may be reviewing my papers, my grant
applications and who may be personal friends. If in my capacity as
reviewer I may wish to be severely critical of some aspect of a paper
then I'm going to have to be extremely confident that none of the
authors is going to take it as a personal affront from me to them
which may invite some kind of pay-back later. Feeling inhibited in
this way isn't really conducive to honest reviewing, I think. 


Dave Curtis (dcurtis at hgmp.mrc.ac.uk)
Institute of Psychiatry, London 
http://www.iop.bpmf.ac.uk/home/depts/psychmed/general/dcurtis/dcurtis.htm