Paul - Mario Pagliaro's blog

In a timely editorial in Chemistry World this month, Bristol's senior lecturer Paul May politely raises the issue of refereeing scientific papers for free. Hence, writes Paul:

"This week, as usual, I received four emails from scientific journals politely asking me ‘as a respected expert in my field, would I kindly consider refereeing a paper that had been submitted to their journal?’.

"In my younger, more ambitious days, I probably felt quite flattered to be thought worthy enough for such responsibility. But nowadays, being older, wiser, and decidedly more crotchety, I email my standard reply: ‘I am afraid that I am extremely busy at the moment... However, if you wish to move this task
up my priority list, this can be achieved by payment of a small fee.’

"Needless to say, none of the journals responded.

"Can you think -- Paul adds -- of any other profession that gives away its expertise free of charge? Would a lawyer, surgeon or accountant provide unpaid consultancy? We academics often complain that we are not treated as professionals in the same way as other experts. Perhaps part of the reason is
that we do not charge for our most prized attribute – our expertise.

If we do not appear to value our years of education, knowledge and training, why should others? The solution is simple: pay referees a consultancy fee. It doesn’t have to be much, I’d suggest around £20.

"For a typical journal issue referee payments would cost an additional £1000, which is insignificant compared with the total production cost. The benefits to the publisher would easily outweigh any cost. Referees would have to return their reports on time to get their fee, so publication times would speed up; bad or unreliable referees would not be asked twice, whereas reliable, detailed and fast referees would be asked again and again, and it could become quite a lucrative sideline for them".

These are fresh arguments, Paul, especially in days when publishers are raising immense profits. Indeed, as you say, "after saving up the payments, academics could even upgrade their cars to the newer models driven by lawyers and doctors".