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In nearly all fields, referees of scientific papers are not paid. Referees of scientific books may be paid a small honorarium, but, compared with consulting, i
by michael_nielsen 17y ago
In nearly all fields, referees of scientific papers are not paid. Referees of scientific books may be paid a small honorarium, but, compared with consulting, it's a pittance.
Background experience: I refereed somewhat over 100 papers and perhaps a dozen or so books during my career as a physicist. My work now overlaps with the scientific publishing industry more broadly.
- Retric 17y agoIt is my understanding that referees are sometimes paid, but editors rarely work for free. (Using http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_review http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_review version of editors.) It's a lot of work to find out who is best to referee a given work and to track down conflicts of interest etc.
- michael_nielsen 17y agoWith editors the issue of payment depends on the journal. Some journals employ a staff of professional editors. Others recruit tenured scientists who do the editorial work for an honorarium that seems tiny, considering the amount of work involved. I don't know which model is more widely used - I can think offhand of many journals of both types, but don't recall ever having seen statistics.