Modeling Evaluator Incentives in a Peer Review Information System for Scientific Journals

ABSTRACT This article models the rational incentives involved in providing an informative evaluation for a knowledge management system when the evaluation has some consequences to the evaluator. The analysis is carried out in the context of the peer review process that is currently used to select articles for publication in scientific journals. The article uses the model to evaluate some proposed and implemented improvements to the peer review process. In conclusion, the article outlines other approaches that can result in improvements to the peer review process and invites further empirical research. While the article focuses on academic publishing in the sciences, there is some discussion on how its conclusions could be extended into the humanities or inter-disciplinary scholarship.