Stakeholders

Stakeholders In many fields, research efforts are rising while research productivity is declining sharply, and a poor review system is partly to blame. Who should care? Every stakeholder in the academic system should care, which implies that almost every actor in society should care. Allow me to break down a few of them:

• Academic researchers. Academic researchers can benefit from more time to focus on their work as they are relieved of the obligation to review papers and will no longer have to win a lottery to be published in prestigious journals. Meanwhile, individuals who identify flaws in the system will be rewarded for their contributions, unlike the current situation. Both groups will benefit from a more accurate paper reliability scoring system. At the organisational level, Referee may reduce or eliminate the need for journal subscriptions, while hiring and tenure committees will have access to additional, reliable data to evaluate candidates.

• Non-academic researchers. Newly minted PhDs excluded from tenure-track positions would have an alternative opportunity to apply their specialised knowledge to curate human knowledge productively.

• Educational, training and consultancy firms, as well as their customers. The impact of academic research reaches far beyond the academy. Many training and advisory firms rely on quality research to improve their customer capabilities. When research is unreliable or false, it leads to wasted time and resources as people try to implement flawed practices. This waste is immense.

• Government funders and private investors. Like upcoming academics, grant agencies will have an additional data source to inform their project funding decisions. Military and defence agencies will benefit from faster and more reliable results from the research they fund and rely on. Private corporations and entrepreneurs will reduce waste resulting from faulty research.

• Downstream government stakeholders. This group includes a wide range of individuals, from dieters who trust government nutritional guidelines to fishers affected by fishing restrictions.

• Traditionally marginalised groups and locations. Higher education has turned into a status game, negatively impacting knowledge curation and sharing. Referee enables marginalised groups and locations to participate in this collective pursuit. Participation is not limited by credentials, age, race, or other discriminatory factors, and individuals can participate anonymously if they prefer.