From: Kevin Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 12:16:58 +0000

I would hope that any moderator of such a site would take the approach
that all serious comments, whether positive or negative, about any
publishing venue or method of scholarly dissemination would be
welcome.  If that were the policy, neither the identity of the
moderator, that individual's opinions, nor the particular business
model of the publishers discussed therein should matter too much.

Kevin

-----Original Message-----
From: Anthony Watkinson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Sat, 8 Jun 2013 19:51:38 +0100

Anyone who taught in a university is aware that such evaluations can
be very useful. It is not difficult to pick out the malcontents and
people who just want to cause problems, annoying though these are.

All or at least most publishers crave feedback. That is one of the
reasons they hold expensive editorial board meetings. BioMed Central
answer all complaints about their journals at a senior management
level on a particular afternoon every week. When I was a publisher for
a list of journals I always replied to any complaints that reached me
at once and instigated an enquiry.
BMC make sure that complaints always reach senior people. It is not in
the interest of publishers dependent on good relations with the
academic community if they are to discourage evaluation.

It seems to me that the problem will be who runs the site. If it
someone like our moderator everyone except some very extreme people
will be happy.
If it is a single person like Jeffrey Beall it is good if, like
Jeffrey, they strive to be fair. If it is someone who has vendetta
against publishers in general or particular publishers what good will
the site do? I am not sure how many people will have seen the formal
evaluations of The Charleston Advisor of online electronic resources.
The reviews of services and products in TCA are scrutinised by a
varied editorial board quite carefully [admission - I am one of them].
I am not suggesting something formal like this - it is one extreme of
what is possible. The big problem is of course how to make such a
venture sustainable. I am sure Ann could tell us the amount of work
involved.

Anthony

-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 6 Jun 2013 03:30:35 +0000

>Let me ask Kevin, in return, how useful he thinks student evaluations
>of teachers are, as at the "Rate Your Professors" site where professors
>are, among other things, rated for their "hotness."

I won't presume to speak for Kevin, but I'll throw out my own answer
to this question, for what it's worth:

Student reviews of professors' "hotness" are, of course, not
academically useful at all. However, student reviews that assess such
things as a professor's tendency to be adequately prepared for class,
to show up on time, to explain difficult principles clearly and
accurately, to foster useful and productive in-class discussion, to
speak intelligibly, to evaluate student work fairly and helpfully, to
return graded work within a reasonable period of time, to communicate
class expectations clearly, and to deliver the promised content of the
course in a disciplined and effective way -- these would all be
extremely useful to other students who are trying to decide which
section of a class to sign up for.

Similarly, I think a forum in which authors share their experiences
with journals along analogous lines (and I think it's pretty clear
what those lines might be) would be extremely helpful as well.

One in which authors rate the hotness of editors would be much less
useful, of course.

---
Rick Anderson
Interim Dean, J. Willard Marriott Library University of Utah
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