From: "James J. O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2011 07:57:39 -0500


CHE today has a piece on the decline of willingness of scholars to
participate in peer review:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/worldwise/refereeing-in-crisis/28943

-- it appears to be accessible without subscription (sample below).  The
author writes from his own experience, not any broader base of data.
Are there other ways of confirming/nuancing this concern?

Jim O'Donnell
Georgetown University

Refereeing in Crisis?
December 12, 2011, 3:31 pm

By Nigel Thrift
One of the things that often shocks new journal editors is the
difficulty that they face in obtaining referees for papers. It is
often necessary to approach a string of referees in order to obtain
the requisite number of references. Most annoyingly of all, sometimes
a person who has just submitted a paper to a journal then refuses to
referee for it or has the nerve to complain about delays to the
reviewing process occasioned precisely by the search for referees. And
that is before we get to the people who are approached who never even
deign to reply. More seriously, at least from my experience of editing
a journal, the problem is getting worse.

<snip>