Interesting solution of community-based structure for all members with proper scientific training but wonder about the equal participation. The analogy to that of a capitalistic economy also interesting in terms of evolutionary cycles and formation of monopolies. Your reference to corporations and the business community disruptive innovation seems similar to the Externalities essay. Yours is a more structured approach regarding the solution of community-based structure driven by the scientific community. The scope of your solution does not mention competing command economies that are mention in the Externalities essay where a community-based solution would not be tolerated. Your essay does focus on how science could be different and does cite the influence of capitalist development but not its overpowering influence. Both your essay and the Externalities essay do mention the required scientist's role in adopting change. I will rate your essay high in its direct focus on the problem posed by the contest.

    IvoryLungfish
    I look forward to watching (at least) these platforms you mention. Thank you.

      The author elaborates on a system similar to a capitalist economy. We need a change of science now, which is really too bureaucratic.
      In my essay, I also mentioned a comparison with the capitalist economy and with the communist economy in a few sentences. But the author made a full analysis. I hope that some changes will be make one day.
      But we should know that such a system is only the beginning and needs to be corrected and upgraded. For instance, not all A0 and A-1 will deserve this assessment, a big majority will, but some will not, etc.

        8 days later

        I really appreciate your proposal and I too have often thought of a similar system capable of guaranteeing due recognition to the work of a scientist, also in analogy with the economic credit system that you propose. However, I always get stuck on the following problems, someone is already highlighted in this forum.
        1) A credit-based system would bring into science all the distortions of economics, including many injustices. The good scientist would now try to do a good job, perhaps innovative and groundbreaking, hoping to get the right recognition. A credit-based system would push the scientist to act for "profit". The upstarts would be incentivized. I give an example. In 2012 an article was published on arXiv (not peer-reviewed) proclaiming the experimental discovery of superluminary neutrinos. In the following weeks we saw on arXiv an indecent proliferation of preprints with the most bizarre theories of violation of general relativity. All these authors had wide visibility in those days and perhaps even managed to publish in journals, while an honest scientist would rightly have waited for the peer-review of the research before embarking on such speculations to collect "credit". According to your model these authors would have earned credit when their works are actually rubbish in the test of fact.
        2) Credit monopolies and credit trade would be created (I have personally already noted the existence of a not-always-honest citation traffic in scientific literature). We are all familiar with the opportunistic nature of man. Authors or institutions amassing a huge volume of credits would crush any competitor, regardless of the validity of the proposed ideas.
        3) The economy is extremely short-sighted and is only interested in the profit it will have tomorrow without worrying about the catastrophes that will happen the day after tomorrow (see the responsibility of the consumerist system in the problem of global warming and its inability to limit itself to avoid it). On the other hand, science is absolutely forward-looking. "Why, sir, there is every probability that you will soon be able to tax it!" Said Faraday to William Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he asked about the practical worth of electricity. Peter Higgs had to wait 50 years to see his theory "confirmed", Einstein had to wait years before being noticed, and some scientists were unable to see the fruit of their ideas before their death. A credit-based mechanism could reduce science to a profit calculus, obscuring the thirst for knowledge and unconditional intellectual curiosity that should instead be a scientist's main motivation.

        arXiv can be considered a very partial realization of your project if you consider that each preprint on arXiv (or arXiv moderation) corresponds to credits. Thus in recent years, we have seen a growing increase in the volume of publications under the logic of "publish or perish" rarely accompanied by real scientific progress or new ideas (I would say that this has prevented new ideas). Thanks to arXiv, theoretical physics is stuck at 20 / 30 years ago.
        All these distortions I talk about and the negative consequences they are bringing to science are mentioned in my essay "The Name of the arXiv: when too much zeal is an obstacle to science".

          James Hoover
          Thanks a lot for your interest. I also wish you good luck in the competition. My goal is not so much about winning in this essay contest, but rather about gaining needed attention to implementation of the proposed system in the real world.

            Janko Kokosar
            Yes, the proposed system is a dynamic one and need to be fine-tuned, especially at early stages. Just as elaborated in the full preprint posted at OpenReview.net:
            https://openreview.net/forum?id=E144GC5Vgw6
            A-1 category is reserved for truly detrimental (fraudulent or plagiaristic) works. While some in A0 could be truly garbage or useless, we hope it could be minimized due to the incentive system. As discussed in the preprint (see A.2, page 17), it is more likely to be a placeholder for fringe science or disruptive ideas that have not yet been recognized by the community. Under the new system, the good ones will eventually be credited.

              Donatello Dolce
              Thanks a lot for your detailed response. I'll try to be concise in my reply to your points. More details can be found in my preprint posted at OpenReview.net:
              https://openreview.net/forum?id=E144GC5Vgw6

              1) (see the time factor in A1 on page 17, middle of page 22, etc.; also last paragraph of post #18). In essence, the proposed system is dynamically calibrated. All the rating/review activities are staged, and only the current one is used for calculating credits. This will effectively defeat such gaming behaviors. For the example you mentioned, yes, those articles regarding superluminary neutrinos could have gained more credits in the early weeks or possibly months. But late in 2012, the scientific community discovered the errors. According to the proposed system, the credits will be re-calculated for such events. No system is perfect. But the proposed one is based on the trust of the scientific community as a whole. So at least, we can reduce the blocking force from elite circles and encourage early attempts (either disruptive ideas or error-corrections).

              2) Again, the system is dynamic with many built-in measures to prevent gaming (see Appendix sections in the preprint). No calculated credits are final and they all could be changed based on new findings. There might be people who like to bet on short-lived fame or credits. But in the long run, only good behaviors will be credited.

              3) (see post #18 and also the preprint). The economy analogy is introduced to compare similar phenomena like monopolies and startups in both fields. But the fundamental difference makes the review process unique and extremely critical in scientific research. Again, as mentioned above, the dynamic credit system will hopefully encourage more forward-looking behaviors. I think it is consistent with our main motivation - thirst for knowledge and curiosity for truth.

              *) arXiv issue. I don't think arXiv is any kind of realization of my proposed system. It is the opposite as it does not allow the whole community to participate and instead, only a few people are doing the gate-keeping moderation. It is more consistent with the "publish or perish" culture, as you just need to post traditionally accepted articles. There is no incentive at all in the arXiv service to encourage innovation. I doubt that they'll do anything at all similar to what I proposed. I think other platforms will do better as discussed above in my earlier posts.

              *) I have read and commented your essay. It reads great and I rated very high. Wish you good luck in the competition.

                  Wanpeng Tan

                  II also evaluated your proposal very well because some transparent mechanisms such as the one you proposed are necessary.

                  I see that you have given due consideration to the possible critical points I have highlighted.

                  In fact, now, the ratings of scientists are influenced by institutions like arXiv, where there is no community participation. Your proposal could be a valid alternative to the current system, which in my opinion has caused great damage to the development of science.

                  Thank you for your interest in my essay.

                      11 days later

                      slightly comment to this essay , (there were other essays as well" bonobo science", or with "The Name of the arXiv: when too much zeal is an obstacle to science”") concerning apparently with the social status of the researcher/ scientists
                      married , health , deceased past century etc

                      an idea might be ,
                      printed medium first , lets say there is an ink that after a year or two is not having the same color any more or is just disappearing , when the article is published , immediately after the publication the Author (s) (if many) might want to reveal certain information, that are not with a scientific scope ,
                      some articles contains this in between lines ,lets say make those explicit by placing status near the alphabetic name
                      online/virtual environment this status can magically appear and dissapear

                      single 23, years old, at the date of the publication 11 eleven 5may 2012two thousand twelves

                      , for example, and naturally this is slowly becoming irrelevant for the author, because nobody reading in the year 2023would care about that ,

                      going further even the bibliographical reference list could do the same , for example, some kind of indicator(maybe not written by the authors himself), like has the author contacted all the people in that have made a (i stay on shoulders of giants) type of inspiration , or some might not want to appear there, even if they are dead , lets say i have tried to visit the Niels Bohr gravestone in Copenhagen,where also Kierkegaard or Hans Christian Anderson are being buried , to obtain approval for citing his work in a tabloid like scientific journal.

                      previously (earlier than20-30 years ago) it was not a practice to have the picture of the authors contained .
                      at 1700 if you wanted to have that you had to hire a special artist, to do the drawing, and a special typography person to create the drawing print ,i guess personal communication letters had attempts at that . nowdays i could learn about someone's scientific work via a video, than to look at the publications list , containing magical moved scroll words online.
                      not flipping paper pages

                      the idea is to think , long term and short term, and with multiple utilities
                      how someone from the year 7314, is going experience is relevant for science,
                      the priorities for the authors might be short termed

                      reading not necessarily scientifc as mental cultural social process is not being done with the idea of responding to the author , on the other hand with the advent of communication technologies where writing can be done in any circumstances interferences and new possibilities (why you type write SMS to your friends, do you train to be a publisher ?), or
                      this scientific article was AI written /transcribe after phone dictation in a park for a walk

                      standing still at a desk brings many other expressive possibilities: handwritten calligraphy is an example .

                      e a c h l e t t e r h e r e i s b e e i n g t y p e d w i t h a f e w s e c o n d s p a u s e

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