I see that registered users of SSRN can now post comments on other people’s papers. Maybe this feature has been around for some time but I just noticed it. Is this a small step toward open-source peer review? Or a move toward social networking? (What’s next, the SSRN status update or Super Poke?)

I’ve thought about setting up an academic version of the Fail Blog where scholars could post copies of rejected manuscripts, nasty referee reports and editor’s letters, and — of course — favorite student papers. But some current experiments in open-source  peer review (a topic we’ve covered before) may do the trick. For example, this biology journal is making all submitted manuscripts and referee reports visible to the public:

Publication of research findings is very important to scientists. But scientists tend only to know about how things work at a scientific journal through personal experience and hearsay. By making the evaluation of manuscripts visible to everyone, The EMBO Journal aims to encourage constructive referee and author argumentation. Younger scientists will gain valuable insight into how to publish their research findings as well as how to deal with critique.

I’m not sure how anonymity will be preserved, and some potential authors and reviewers will likely shy away from participating. A very interesting experiment, to be sure. Here’s a wikipedia entry on the open-source peer-review movement more generally.