Article ID: CBB181098680

Peer Review or Lottery? A Critical Analysis of Two Different Forms of Decision-making Mechanisms for Allocation of Research Grants (2019)

unapi

At present, peer review is the most common method used by funding agencies to make decisions about resource allocation. But how reliable, efficient, and fair is it in practice? The ex ante evaluation of scientific novelty is a fundamentally uncertain endeavor; bias and chance are embedded in the final outcome. In the current study, I will examine some of the most central problems of peer review and highlight the possible benefits of using a lottery as an alternative decision-making mechanism. Lotteries are driven by chance, not reason. The argument made in the study is that the epistemic landscape could benefit in several respects by using a lottery, thus avoiding all types of bias, disagreement, and other limitations associated with the peer review process. Funding agencies could form a pool of funding applicants who have minimal qualification levels and then select randomly within that pool. The benefits of a lottery would not only be that it saves time and resources, but also that it contributes to a more dynamic selection process and increases the epistemic diversity, fairness, and impartiality within academia.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB181098680/

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Authors & Contributors
Roumbanis, Lambros
Tehya Stockman
Christian Clausen
Gil-Mo Kang
Doh Soogwan
Tom Heale
Concepts
Research support
Funding and finance
Government sponsored science
Technoscience; science and technology studies
Peer review
Decision making
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
20th century
19th century
Places
United States
Sweden
Germany
South Korea
Russia
New Zealand
Institutions
Universities and colleges--Alumni and alumnae
Swedish Research Council
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Rossiiskaia Akademiia Nauk
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