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Thursday, November 11, 2010

Rigorous Online Paper Review Workflow

If the integrity of a company is dependent on the top management's character, dishonesty within the company must mean there is something wrong with top management...(?)
One of man's eternal questions is, "Is it the people or the system?" It's our job to stop making excuses and think of workflows that just don't allow dishonesty. We could consider a system for processing large orders, or for concealing scandals. A public body might need a good process for hiring personnel. Let's start with a workflow for reviewing submitted papers and giving the final yes/no.



The reviewers are not provided with the identity of the paper's author, the identity of the other reviewers, nor other review results and comments. If there are about 30 reviewers overall this should be enough for appropriate distribution of work.
Incidentally, in this next workflow the board chairman (senior guy to the Secretariat head, reviewers' teacher, etc.) is in charge of Tasks [3. Approve Reviewers] and [7. Chairman Comments], so whether this leads to better governance or not entirely depends on the chairman's character after all.