Feedback by Timothy Gowers

Dear Doron,

A quick message to say that basically I agree with what you say. Like you I would like to see the current system largely swept away. And like you, I think that we pretend that our cherished systems of peer review do far more than they actually do. However, many mathematicians have less radical views, so I think there is some merit in singling out Elsevier in the first instance, as something that large numbers of people can agree about. But I myself don't see that as the "real" campaign. The real campaign is to change attitudes amongst mathematicians so that we can get more quickly to a better system for making hiring decisions and the like, one that doesn't require rather arbitrary and even misleading stamps of approval from expensive journals.

Best wishes,

Tim


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