Re: Token compensation, was: In the news (Georgia State)

[Sandy Thatcher <sgt3@psu.edu>]

Hmm, I guess university presses should stop paying honoraria 
("token fees") to scholars for reviewing book manuscripts! 
According to the study Phil cites, we should then get better 
reviews.

> I'd be interested in what 'a token fee' means?  Given that 
> reviewers claim they spend hours on each article they review, 
> can a 'token fee' be considered ample remuneration of reviewers' 
> time and expertise?  In studies of social psychology, one often 
> gets better results from volunteers when they are not 
> compensated than when they are compensated badly.  Many medical 
> journals publish annual lists of the reviewers as a public 
> acknowledgment of their contribution, which appears to be an act 
> of compensation (payment as prestige).
>
> I'd be very interested to know whether token compensation 
> results in better reviews in JHEP.  Is anyone aware of similar 
> reviewer compensation experiments?
>
> Philip M. Davis
> PhD Student
> Department of Communication
> Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
> email: pmd8@cornell.edu
> https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/~pmd8/resume