User:JWSchmidt/Blog/8 February 2007

Referees  Back in June 2006 I started thinking seriously about how Wikiversity would allow original research while preventing potential problems such as cranks who would offer up bogus "research". I found it hard to escape from the conventional approach of having some kind of formal system for peer review. In August, after the launch of Wikiversity I tried to come up with a name for the folks who would power a Wikiversity formal peer review process and came up with "referee". At the end of August I put the idea of formal peer review at the Wikiversity multi-lingual hub.

Today we finally got a first draft of a policy for the Wikiversity:Review board on the Wikiversity multi-lingual hub. I think the key feature of this proposed policy is the idea of having a new kind of functionary ("referee") who would be certified by the community as having some expertise in a particular subject area. Under this proposed policy, the community will rely on on "referees" to make sure that Wikiversity research projects do not turn into POV silliness and crank factories.