Tuesday 19 January 2016

The Winnower - an inspiring model for science publishing

I have just published a small report in an online scientific journal called The Winnower

https://thewinnower.com/papers/3282-three-potential-emotional-causes-of-depressive-symptoms-negative-emotionality-hyper-emotionality-and-hypo-emotionality-a-preliminary-study

The great thing about the journal is that - like scientific publications in the golden days - is not peer reviewed, but uses an open access/ commentary/ archiving model somewhat like the online physics repository arXiv. You post a paper, invite comments and reviews - and when you are ready to finalize it, pay a modest 25 dollars administrative charge for permanent record with a DOI reference.

As a consequence, the journal has an appealing, idealistic, free-wheeling kind of atmosphere which is an antidote to the usual mainstream journal's mixture of misleading hype and spin with crushing bureaucratic conformity.

In sum - the journal is about communication and exchange between enthusiasts - and not about the peer review world of career building, brownie-point collecting and publishing for the sake of publications.

The journal has been going for a few years now, and its papers are now getting noticed and cited. Some of the more independent and radical intelligence research is finding its way there - including papers by young scientists such as Davide Piffer and Emil O. W. Kirkegaard.

I intend to write-up a few of my ideas there over the coming months - and thereby hope to contribute to what may be a livelier, more responsive, more enjoyable way of doing science.