Fallout and miss in journal peer review
Abstract
Purpose
The authors exploit the analogy between journal peer review and information retrieval in order to quantify some imperfections of journal peer review.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors define fallout rate and missing rate in order to describe quantitatively the weak papers that were accepted and the strong papers that were missed, respectively. To assess the quality of manuscripts the authors use bibliometric measures.
Findings
Fallout rate and missing rate are put in relation with the hitting rate and success rate. Conclusions are drawn on what fraction of weak papers will be accepted in order to have a certain fraction of strong accepted papers.
Originality/value
The paper illustrates that these curves are new in peer review research when interpreted in the information retrieval terminology.
Keywords
Citation
Egghe, L. and Bornmann, L. (2013), "Fallout and miss in journal peer review", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 69 No. 3, pp. 411-416. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-12-2011-0053
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited