Meditations and Learnings

Meditations and Learnings

The Weakest Link Argument for Open Science

Peer review is only as strong as its weakest link. A lenient reviewer may let through crap while a dishonest reviewer may steal findings and reject.
Open science is as strong as its strongest link.
Malcolm Gladwell has previously dichotomised sports teams into categories based on similar criteria. Some sports teams, like those in football football, benefit from the improvement of the weakest member. Others, such as in basketball, benefit from an ever better star player.
We do not want science approval to be based on the latter - it doesn’t scale when the selection of any given reviewer is random.