28th November 2010, 04:30 PM
Dinosaur Wrote:The problem with getting 'recognised experts' out to look at things on site is that (a) in my experience they quite often turn out to have even less knowledge than I do and are blagging it on the basis of having done some research excavation in the 1960s, (b) it's usually impossible to get anyone to come from the other end of the country for free, and © the hole's usually been backfilled long before they have a window in their schedule/retirement.....This reads as though you think that visiting the site is part of the peer review process. It would not be in an academic site, so why should it be in the case of a commercial site? The review is of the quality of the report on the site. The curator still has oversight of and responsibility for the quality of the fieldwork. They should also have input into reviewing the report and a right to comment on it. However, the peer review governs the quality of the report, as it would with any journal article. It checks that the reporting is up to snuff and that the conclusions fit with the evidence as presented.
'Reality,' sa molesworth 2, 'is so unspeakably sordid it make me shudder.'