The current system of peer-reviewing scientific publications has the momentum of centuries, and is still ruled by a rigid cycle based on its original print medium. The review phase must be complete before publication takes place; once the work is published, it cannot be updated. While insightful comments may have been made during the review process, or afterward by readers, these comments are not distributed together with the published work, so that crucial context may not be passed on to readers. What if we could redesign the process of scientific review to take advantage of modern technologies?
People are experimenting with new ideas. Archival sites are available that allow scientists to post their work without delay: the most prominent is Cornell’s arXiv.org, and other institutions such as the California Digital Library are following suit. Many researchers are interested in developing review systems around these repositories that may augment, and eventually ...
