Outside of astronomy, the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Sensors and Sensing
Systems program used the distributed peer
review system to handle its most recent
round of grant applications. Applicants were
informed in advance that they would each
review seven competing proposals; despite
the extra workload for PIs, the agency received around 40 percent more applications
than usual (see Mervis, 2014).
Thought Experiments
Distributed peer review can be scaled to handle large numbers of proposals, which will be
a big asset if the Fast Turnaround program
proves popular. On the other hand, distributed peer review is new and different and clearly requires some careful consideration. Deciding how best to implement such a system for
Gemini has been a fascinating experience.
The obvious starting point was a 2009 paper by Michael Merrifield and Donald Saari,
which advanced the rather apocalyptic
viewpoint that not only is the standard TAC
process “horribly onerous on those unfortunate astronomers who serve on the committees,