bias in peer review

[Julia Frugoli]

Sue Forsburg said:

(snip)
>But don't you think that the impact factor is influenced by who you 
>work
>with, 
>how hot the field is, whether you get noticed by a bigshot?  And what
>the 
>study in Sweden pointed out is that women seem less likely to make 
>those
>connections. (I'm being a deliberate devil's advocate here....)
(snip)

My reading of the study was that women who made those connections only 
got boosted to the rank of men who did not-ie, the highest ranked women 
were on par with the lowest ranked men,  leading to the take home 
message that a woman had to produce 2.5 times as much as a man to 
receive the same score.

I have to admit I am not only saddened and angered by this study, but by 
some of my colleagues who are now pouring over the paper trying to find 
an excuse for "why they're wrong".  The disbelief by some people that 
bias in the system exists makes acceptance of cold fusion look easy!!
Julia Frugoli
Dartmouth College

visiting grad student at
Texas A&M University
Department of Biological Sciences
College Station, TX 77843
409-845-0663
FAX 409-847-8805

"Evil is best defined as militant ignorance."
																										Dr. M. Scott Peck