How Peer Review Work Is Used in Astronomy
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Unscientific Method
An astronomer's peer-reviewed piece of work is passed under the "equity" lens and institute wanting.
November eight, 2021
Some other day, another retraction of a scientific newspaper for violating the code of diversity. On November one, astronomer John Kormendy withdrew an commodity from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), afterwards a preprint version that he had merely posted on the web drew sharp criticism for threatening the conduct of "inclusive" scientific discipline. Three days after, the preprint version was scrubbed too (though a PDF tin still be found here.) The paper had passed the journal's three-person peer-review system and was awaiting publication. Kormendy'southward forthcoming volume on the same topic had as well passed peer review and had been printed for distribution. Now distribution of the book has been put on agree, likely permanently.
Kormendy, an expert on supermassive black holes and professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin, acknowledges no errors in his research. "I didn't do anything [methodologically] wrong," he told me. "I trust my techniques; I trust the results. I checked for bias in peachy item." Withal, he issued an amends on Nov 1: "I now see that my work has hurt people. I apologize to y'all all for the stress and the pain that I have caused. Null could be further from my hopes. I fully back up all efforts to promote fairness, inclusivity, and a nurturing environment for all."
What was and so hurtful in his commodity? Kormendy had aimed to reduce the role of individual subjectivity in scientific hiring and tenure decisions. He created a model that predicted a scientist'south long-term enquiry bear on from the citation history of his early publications. He tested the results of his model against a panel of 22 prestigious astronomers, many of whom had advised the federal government on scientific enquiry priorities and had served as jurors on high-profile astronomy prizes. That panel rated the research touch of the 512 astronomers whom Kormendy had run through his model; the panel's conclusions closely matched the model'southward results. Kormendy'southward paper stressed that hiring decisions should exist made "holistically." Scientific influence was but one factor to consider; achieving gender and racial residuum in a department was besides a legitimate business organization, he wrote.
Formulas for quantifying scientific influence on the basis of a commendation record are hardly new. PNAS itself published the proposal for one such well-known measure out, known as the "h-index." But that was in 2005. In 2021, a different standard for evaluating ideas applies: Practise they assistance or hinder females and underrepresented minorities in STEM? Kormendy'south model, tweeted an astrophysicist at the Metropolis University of New York, "Only TOOK ANY TINY STEPS WE ARE MAKING TOWARDS Equity AND THREW THEM OUT OF THE WINDOW" (capitalization in the original). An astronomer in Budapest objected that Kormendy had failed to consult with "relevant humanities experts" about cumulative bias against females and minorities. As damningly, Kormendy had suggested that the profession should overcome its underrepresentation problem by hiring female and minority scientists, who, in the words of the Budapest astronomer, "lucifer the success rate of the majority (i.e., men)."
Afterward Kormendy withdrew the paper, a Academy of Texas colleague tweeted of her hopes that the piece of work of doing "science inclusively" could at present keep. Others directed pot shots at the panel of 22 raters for existence a "bunch of old people" from Western universities who were not representative of the "astronomy customs." But that not-representation was exactly the point—scientific expertise is not democratic. These were scientists at the top of their field, whose accomplishments would in earlier times take been a source of authorization.
Naturally, the fact that 19 of the panelists were men was a red flag. But Kormendy had tried to get more female raters; they turned down his offer to bring together the project in higher proportion than the males he solicited. (The three female person panelists rated female astronomers higher than the male panelists did. Kormendy'due south attribution of this discrepancy to bias on the role of the males won him no credit.)
None of the paper'south critics spelled out how publication metrics (known equally "bibliometrics") conflict with disinterestedness. Many accept rebuffed or ignored attempts to seek clarification. Presumably, the critics intuit (correctly) that quantitative measures of scientific influence will show that white males take had the greatest bear upon on science to date. That finding would non exist caitiff on its face, however, unless we ascertain equity every bit equality of outcome.
The paper's methodology came under desultory challenge too. Bryan Gaensler, an astronomy professor at the University of Toronto, told Within Higher Ed: "I don't think the premise that motivated this work is right, and I don't think the bodily piece of work done should have passed peer review." The work did pass peer review, however, and no one has claimed that the oversight procedure was manipulated. The solution to disagreements over premises or method is to publish a rebuttal, not to disappear the allegedly wrong paper, absent a showing of fraud or late discovered errors then smashing as to undercut the entire enterprise.
Fifty-fifty some of Kormendy's rating panelists issued apologies afterward the fact for their participation. Brian Schmidt, chancellor of the Australian National University and a Nobel prize-winner, wrote on Twitter: "As an unintended consequence Of this article, I hope our field can be more Cogitating of our hiring practices, and the caitiff gatekeeping that occurs into astronomy to this day. I am sad for my involvement" [capitalization in the original].
The Kormendy retraction is now the fifth in recent years cancelling a scientific paper deemed to bear negatively on equity in STEM. Previous cancellations include a mathematical model to explain why evolution would select for greater variability in inherited traits among males of a species and an empirical study comparison the benefits of male and female mentorship in STEM (male mentorship proved more advantageous). The authors of the latter retracted article expressed "deep regret" for having "caused pain."
And now, in addition to the inhibitions on publishing, the cancellation auto is explicitly wiping out judgments of scientific merit if they fail to meet a variety quota. In Oct, a few days earlier the Kormendy retraction, a committee that awards fellowships for the American Geophysical Union cancelled the slate of finalists that peer scientists had forwarded to it because the three finalists were all white men. Amend non to accolade a fellowship at all than to give it to a white male person. The leader in the counterfoil effort admitted that the finalists, who specialize in the study of snow and ice, were "truly, amazingly deserving." Just the counterfoil would result in a "fairer process," she told E & E News.
The cancelling committee presented no testify of unfairness in the nomination procedure, apart from the unacceptable result. Indeed, the entire American Geophysical Union fellowship process was decidedly pro-female: female finalists overall had a virtually 50 percent greater adventure of being selected for a fellowship than male finalists. That disparity is not regarded equally unfair, simply as the higher ratings given to female person scientists past female raters in the Kormendy report were non regarded equally biased.
From here on, no Stem job or honour awarded to a female or an underrepresented minority volition be free from the justified suspicion that the selection was the issue of "equity" concerns. The pressure on STEM laboratories and academic faculties to hire by quota rather than by scientific merit grows by the day. And the judgment of scientific research now hinges non on its validity merely on whether information technology allegedly causes "injure" or impedes the achievement of proportional representation in STEM studies.
The "simply affair on anyone'southward mind now is redressing inequities," Kormendy told me, adding that he supports that "honorable" aim. Simply science is non about social justice. It's virtually the advancement of knowledge via the complimentary exchange of ideas and the careful testing of results. Step by step, nosotros are shutting downward the very processes of open inquiry and the cultivation of excellence that take freed humanity from so much unnecessary suffering.
Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images
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Source: https://www.city-journal.org/scientific-merit-and-the-equity-cult
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