Well put. However, I’d add that peer review is a mess for another reason: there are more than a few people who, when they are meant to peer review a paper, merely scan it for their names and then respond accordingly. If they even do that much. Peer review doesn’t count for much in terms of service or academic activity (two of the three areas profs are generally evaluated on. I don’t remember the third. I’m sure it doesn’t matter much; must not be too important [it’s teaching]). So profs know how to butter their bread: they spend the majority of their time on their own research, as little time as possible in service, and as little as they can get away with teaching. As a general rule. Things are different at teaching institutions, but not necessarily better.
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