Social Media and Scientific Journals

There have been rumblings of major changes in the way scientific journals peer review submissions.  Criticism of the current system has been growing for quite some time, particularly with respect to the lag time between when a manuscript is submitted and when it is published.  In the fast-paced world of modern research, by the time a paper is published - which can be many months after submission - it is often already out-of-date.  Some publishers have also faced criticism of favoritism, with lower quality papers being chosen over higher quality papers solely due to the name or affiliation of the author(s).

The first step towards a major paradigm shift in peer review has already occurred:  a social media network has been created by a group in Finland that is dedicated to reviewing manuscripts for publication in a Wiley journal.  Science Insider has a pretty good description of how the network functions and why it will be better than the current system, so I won't dwell on it.  But I will say that I'm still on the fence about this.  I think it's good that they're doing some cautious beta testing on one scientific journal, rather than instituting it widely right out of the gate, as it will allow Wiley to gather some valuable data, test the waters, and optimize the network before moving forward.  I'll definitely be keeping a close watch on this, because it represents a substantial change in the way peer reviewed journals select papers for publication.  And who knows?  It just might work.