Whodunnit

Previously we've talked about judging the scientist by their science. Today we turn the question around: When should you judge a piece of scientific work based on what you know about the person who did it? We examine the arguments for why an author's track record should and shouldn't matter in judging their work. What are the pros and cons of masking authors' identities from reviewers and editors? How do we simultaneously manage validity and bias, and reconcile those things with a broader concept of fairness? And also: This week's letter is about what to do when your findings fail to replicate. 

Discussed in this episode:

• Simine's paper  Quality Uncertainty Erodes Trust in Science
• And the Akerlof paper that inspired it
• Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection Procedures by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
• Graduate Admission Variables and Future Success by Robyn Dawes

The Black Goat is hosted by Sanjay Srivastava, Alexa Tullett, and Simine Vazire. Find us on the web at www.theblackgoatpodcast.com, on Twitter at @blackgoatpod, or on Facebook at facebook.com/blackgoatpod/. You can email us at [email protected]. You can subscribe to us on iTunes.

Our theme music is Peak Beak by Doctor Turtle, available on freemusicarchive.org under a Creative Commons noncommercial attribution license.

This is episode 23. It was recorded December 2, 2017.