Cockburn’s ur-expert on peer review
http://www.counterpunch.com/cockburn06162007.html
Apropos =93peer review=94 Martin Hertzberg, sent me an amusing note last =
week:
=93When people ask me how can I possibly disagree with all the Nobel =
Prize winners who have signed on to the theory of the human causation =
of global warming, I tell them the Einstein story of the =91Anti- =
Relativity Society=92.
=93After Einstein left Berlin and after Hitler took over, the Nazis =
were not happy with Relativity Theory, which of course they didn’t =
understand, and which they considered a =91Jewish science=92. There were =
many distinguished German scientists who were eager to please their =
new masters, some of them even Nobel Prize winners, so they formed an =
=91Anti-Relativity Society=92 that published papers trying to show that =
Einstein’s theory of Special Relativity, was wrong.
=93When Einstein was asked about it later, he smiled and responded to =
the effect that if his Special Theory of Relativity was really wrong, =
it didn’t take an army of physicists or Nobel Laureates to prove him =
wrong: just one physics student with a single experiment or =
observation that contradicted his theory, would suffice!
=93One can be sure that all the publications in the Anti-Relativity =
Journal were peer reviewed. My experience in reviewing papers and in =
having my papers reviewed, has caused me to reject the whole idea of =
“anonymous” peer review. The potential for abuse is too great. When I =
reviewed papers, I always insisted that the Journal Editor inform the =
author that I was the reviewer and was prepared to support my review =
openly. Planck himself was the only one who reviewed Einstein’s =
seminal 1905 papers. Zeitschrift fur Physik was his Journal and =
everyone knew who the reviewer was.=94
Martin Hertzberg=92s papers, incidentally, are being scanned by =
CounterPunch business manager Becky Grant, a task postponed last week =
because Becky was in Utah with her family attending the wedding of =
her sister Tiffany, who is the designer of our CounterPunch Books.