---
layout: post
status: publish
published: true
title: ! 'Publication: ''Before the law: open access, quality control and the future
  of peer review'''

wordpress_id: 2720
wordpress_url: https://www.martineve.com/?p=2720
date: !binary |-
  MjAxMy0wNy0wMSAwOTowMDo0NSArMDIwMA==
date_gmt: !binary |-
  MjAxMy0wNy0wMSAwODowMDo0NSArMDIwMA==
categories:
- Technology
- Open Access
- Academia
- Publications
- Output
tags:
- Open Access
- Peer Review
comments: []
---
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<p><br/><br />
In this piece on the future of peer review for the <a href="http://www./britac.ac.uk/openaccess">British Academy</a>, I assert that, in the humanities:</p>
<ul>
<li>OA is not about abandoning peer review but it does provide the opportunity to rethink its role and our methods.</li>
<li>67% of existing OA journals do not charge APCs and yet academics have tended to steer clear of them.</li>
<li>People opt for recognised outlets because of the (erroneously) perceived emphasis on publication venue by accreditation structures such as RAE/REF/tenure.</li>
<li>In the print world peer review was historically linked to page limits; these do not apply in the electronic realm.</li>
<li>Double blind review is a misnomer and even then preserved anonymity can be problematic.</li>
<li>The alternative is to publish everything that meets a certain threshold of academic soundness and to let readers decide what should last; in effect a kind of post-publication, or peer-to-peer, review.</li>
<li>This modification of peer review could lead to more collaboration and less insistence on an individual finished product.</li>
</ul>
<p>The piece is available <a href="https://www.martineve.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Debating-Open-Access-Eve-Before-the-law-open-access-quality-control-and-the-future-of-peer-review-June-2013.pdf">to freely download</a> (as well as appearing in a hard copy edition), as is the <a href="https://www.martineve.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Debating-Open-Access-ed-Vincent-and-Wickham-June-2013.pdf">whole collection</a>. The piece is licensed under a CC-BY-NC-ND license.</p>