Talk:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
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A date should be used in preference to "recently", otherwise the article will date quickly. If this is late 2002 or early 2003 (for example) then say so. (I know it's hard to get used to saying "recently", but using specific dates is one of the rules to consider and helps the articles become true encyclopedia articles). -- Lexor 08:15 21 May 2003 (UTC)
Yes, you make a good point. In fact, I hesitated before I used the "recently." Thing is, I'll have to do some research to get a date. I think the policy of identifying a paper's manner of submission was argued for and brought about in the late 80's, but I'm not positive. I'll see if I can find out. 168... 14:11 21 May 2003 (UTC)
Then again, perhaps it was closer to the mid-nineties. I may be fuzzy about things besides the date too. One early nineties article on the Web refers to a then recently abandoned policy of accepting without formal or tradtional peer review any article sponsored by three members, the 2nd two chosen by the first. It suggested abandonment of the policy was over a particular paper. Elsewhere on the Web there's mention of a policy brouhaha over publication by PNAS of a paper by HIV-deny-er Peter Duesberg in 1989. These may be one and the same cause. I didn't exactly state a cause, but I implied it was the issues I described. Perhaps it was both--political clamouring over Duesberg the proximal cause, the simmering issues I described being responsible for the readiness to a make a change in response. The controversy I described comes from my recollection of a talk I heard by the biochemist Howard Schachman, an Academy mover and shaker, as well as scuttlebutt. In this seeming exerpt from the Scientist (http://www.skepticfiles.org/science/930906ts.htm), one can read a disgruntled scientist alluding in 1993 to the widely opined dubiousness of papers in PNAS. " Until recently, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences did not mandate peer review. Quality presumably was maintained by examining an author's previous track record. However, this is no longer true for PNAS." 168... 15:29 21 May 2003 (UTC)