RE: SAGE rolls out rewards program for all journal reviewers

["Nawin" <nawin@nawingupta.com>]

This is an interesting discussion - about tokens of appreciation. 
To add another token of appreciation, some medical journals offer 
peer reviewers continuing medical education credits. I do believe 
the IRS has much larger things to worry about when it comes to 
"compensation-in-kind."

Nawin Gupta
Informed Publishing Solutions, Inc..
Office +1 773-685-2007   Mobile +1 773-623-9199

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Sandy Thatcher
Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2011 6:45 AM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: SAGE rolls out rewards program for all journal reviewers

A similar question arises when reviewers of monographs take the
option of accepting books from the publisher in lieu of a cash
honorarium. Presses report cash payments to reviewers on a 1099
form; they do not report payment in books at all. I doubt that
any reviewers regard this as income for tax purposes either.

Joe is right that reviewing MSS is counted as one of the normal
activities of faculty, so in essence they are being paid extra
for doing what they would regard as part of their normal
university work anyway.  I suppose that applies to consulting
work also, except that I know that universities generally
restrict how much time faculty are allowed to spend on external
consulting work, whereas there are no such restrictions regarding
time spent on peer review, so far as I'm aware.

Sandy Thatcher