You're a Peer Too Link

Derek Lowe discussing a NYT article making the case for allowing comments on scientific publications and archiving them for posterity.

. . .the comments section of any engaging article is almost as necessary a read as the piece itself — if you want to know how insider experts received the article and how those outsiders processed the news (and maybe to enjoy some nasty snark from the trolls).

—Jack Hitt

I think this is exactly what science is about, and exactly what it needs.

—Derek Lowe

I totally agree.1 Some of my favorite articles are R.B. Woodward pieces from the 50's.2 I would have loved to know what his contemporaries had to say at the time.

  1. But, you know, comments on blog posts are totally not tolerable. Go write your own paper and publish it if you want to comment. Sarcasm people. Sarcasm. ↩

  2. To be honest, I like them all. Mastery is attractive. ↩