Wikipedia talk:Peer review/Bytown Mechanics' Institute/archive1

Peer Review

The peer review for the Bytown Mechanics' Institute was really over the top. I don't know how to tell you how astongished I was when I received it. In short, I'm sure there must be some useful information in this peer review, but under the circumstances of condescending comments, any value is hard to get at. What do I say to this person?

These are some of the things that floored me.

• Peer review comment: "Sad to say, I had no clear inkling what "knowledge transfer organizations" was trying to say during my first reading"

My comment: I knew I was in trouble when I saw this! The term is common enough to have a Wikipedia atricle. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_transfer

• Peer review comment: ""These institutions were Victorian and moralistic in tone and class oriented in structure which, in part, explains their failure. The way this sentence is structured makes it seem pretty biased (stating the characteristics as negatives). Which reliable sources said this and on what authority? "

My comment: Victorians were moralistic, and they were proud of it! They were also highly class oriented and equally proud of that! I can't see the harm in stating this. Anyone with a background in Victorian social history would have no problem with this.

• The comments about other references. Now here I am just blown away.

Peer review comment: The closest text in the body (Membership samples) that relates to this claim is sourced to a site that looks more to be a self-published website, which collates self-published genealogies.

My comment: Neither of the references are to websites. The 1st source is to an MA Thesis, which unfortunately is not available online. It is, however, available to be viewed but not borrowed at the Ottawa Room of the Ottawa Public Library. The 2nd ref (Hardy) is a very, very standard text used in Library Science. It carries the weight of many years of academic scrutiny. I’m astonished at the comment.

• Peer review comment: In short, there are about 400 Book Google sources on BMI, whether they be primary or secondary sources and they should be used.

My comment: These source fall into 2 categories: first are the one line entries in sources. I don’t think a single line in an entire text is a good source; second, they reference the references I’ve already used. Again, I’m truly astonished. There are really very few good sources on this subject and I am acquainted with most of them.