Taylor & Francis Online :: Scientific Utopia or Scientific Dystopia? - Psychological Inquiry - Volume 23, Issue 3

Use the link to access the full text commentary published in a special open access issue of the journal Psychological Inquiry: An International Journal for the Advancement of Psychological Theory available from Taylor and Francis.  Each commentary is written in response to the featured target article  "Scientific Utopia: I. Opening Scientific Communication."  The commentary opens as follows: "I am grateful for the opportunity to comment on Brian A. Nosek and Yoav Bar-Anan's (this issue) article. I applaud their willingness to challenge the status quo of scientific communication, and I find myself in agreement with many of their bold proposals. In particular, I second wholeheartedly their calls for digital communication, open access to all published research, publication of peer review, and ongoing peer review. I concur with them that each of these reforms would enhance the openness of scientific communication (see also Mahoney, 1985). As Merton (1942) noted, 'communalism'—the tenet that knowledge belongs to all members of the scientific subculture—is one of the cornerstones of science. The more we can ensure that scientific knowledge is accessible to all players within that community, the better. Nevertheless, I am less persuaded than are Nosek and Bar-Anan that their proposed step of disentangling publication from evaluation will be beneficial to long-term scientific progress; I actually worry that it might prove harmful. In this commentary, I lay out a few of my reservations regarding their daring vision of a scientific utopia. On a more constructive note, I also delineate several provisional criteria for ascertaining whether their proposals will be effective in enhancing scientific progress ..."