I recently was browsing a popular researcher benchmarking website looking at peer review activity. I saw that some top ranked reviewers had completed over 1000 reviews, just in the last 12 months! This is not to mention papers they have authored and, presumably, sleeping occasionally. I concede that I am not as efficient as some researchers, but that seems like a lot.
If someone were doing a job like driving us around in a taxi, would we celebrate the driver who drives for 23.5 hours a day? Or alternatively, the driver who gets 100 jobs done by driving 100 miles an hour and cutting the corners everywhere they go? Is there a comparison that can be made, or not really?
It would be interesting to know whether these hyperactive researchers supplied their reviews for serious or for predatory journals.
There are also hyperactive editors of useless books. 11 years ago I reviewed a book published by VDM Publishing House (now Omniscriptum Publishing Group, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OmniScriptum), a typical predatory publisher. The book was simply compiled from Wikipedia articles (my review in German: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/252851979). One of the editors of this book was L. M. Surhone, who had "edited" more than 3500 books by 2011.
Here are discussions about quantity vs. quality in science in general:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_the_consequences_of_publish_or_perish_culture_in_academia
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Quantity_vs_Quality
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_quantity_of_research_scientific_output_associated_with_its_quality
https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_can_maintain_both_quality_and_quantity_of_a_research_article
The reviewer's "ranking" may have more to do with his value to the publication than the authors. That's not to say that a truly zealous researcher couldn't accurately review that number of papers - even books would be in the realm of possibility. I know many people who read that prolifically, including myself, and "reviewing" is taking the time to write down one's impressions (which I do for many books anyway). Whether the reviews are relevant or helpful may be a different question.
Hello Michael Horn
You are very polite about it (!) but I share your scepticism. How is it possible?
My only additional thought is whether this can be done by delegation in the same way that a lot of articles and book chapters, I find, are written by another person and is attributed to a particular author or researcher. Can you also do that with reviews?
Quantity or quality? the title you chose.
My personal belief is none of them, when there is not data/info about the case
I refer you to Third Ed (2014) of "THE FUNDAMENTAL VALUES OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY" from International Center for Academic Integrity, a USA based Center. (its download link below). It identifies six values, Honesty, Trust, Fairness, Respect, Responsibility & Courage.
- I can say you are here to show your responsibility, it is appreciated but what about other values? about Courage, for example it writes:
- Students who exhibit courage hold themselves and their fellow learners to the highest standards of academic integrity even when doing so involves risk of negative consequences, such as a bad grade, or reprisal from their peers or others. .. It goes on to add
- Ways to demonstrate courage: 1 Be brave even when others might not 2 Take a stand to address a wrongdoing and support others doing the same 3 Endure discomfort for something you believe in 4 Be undaunted in defending integrity 5 Be willing to take risk and risk failure (page 10)
So please share us more information, these things and making them clear can help all the world, but when there is transparency, facts and reliable references.
May you like to have a look at the way that I do it (my contributions) in my discussions and others discussions.
others
- https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_your_thinking_about_report_prepared_by_Prof_John_PA_Ioannidis_and_his_team_at_Stanford_University_USA_2020
- https://www.researchgate.net/post/As_depicted_in_the_picture_can_these_be_considered_plagiarism
- https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_extraterrestrial_aliens_really_exists
- https://www.researchgate.net/post/If_the_Universe_is_Infinite_Eternal_and_Ever-Changing_as_Dialectics_since_Epicurus_insists_how_can_JWST_find_its_Limit
Mine
- https://www.researchgate.net/post/In_your_opinion_was_Stephen_Hawking_a_responsible_Cosmologist_Physicist_and_Scientist
- https://www.researchgate.net/post/In_your_opinion_dont_we_need_a_World_Prize_like_Nobel_Peace_Prize_to_discourage_Frauds_and_misconducts_in_Sciences
- https://www.researchgate.net/post/Questionable_but_yet_powerful_phenomena_in_scientific_journals_even_top_ones_is_I_publish_where_I_edit_Obviously_we_can_not_ask_them_why_and_how
Also Have a look at photo of first page of chapter 7 from a 2019 book published by Harvard University
Its Title: " FRAUD IN THE LAB, The High Stakes of Scientific Research"
Such a book, its publisher, and vivid responsibility and courage... could easily be seen, just not in the page I added here, but also in the entire book, if we read...
- link to download values
https://academicintegrity.org/images/pdfs/20019_ICAI-Fundamental-Values_R12.pdf
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