Menu Close

Articles on Criticism

Displaying all articles

It can be painful for researchers to read harshly worded criticism of their work from peer reviewers. (Shutterstock)

Peer review: Can this critical step in the publication of science research be kinder?

Peer review of research sounds like it should be a conversation between equals. Instead, it can be patronizing, demanding and simply unkind. A group of journal editors thinks this should change.
The work of a first-rate critic can be as important to our appreciation and understanding of a work of art (or performance) as the immediate experience itself. Shutterstock

Alison Croggon and the arts critic as an endangered species

Arts criticism in Australia is under threat, writes Melbourne-based novelist, poet and theatre critic Alison Croggon. One solution may be state subsidy of arts criticism.
To Tolkien, the machine represents a means to attain power over others. His orcs – deformed and ugly creatures, whose hands are sometimes replaced with weapons – embody this lust for power. LOTR Wikia

Tolkien and the machine

My grandfather was a carpenter, and I don’t think he ever developed much of a sense of trust in machines. I remember him laboring away at our home one summer, transforming our screened-in porch into a…
Let’s not underestimate the intellectual goodwill that sustains our literary culture. Antoine Robiez

In defence of book reviewers in Australia

Book reviewers and the editors of periodicals that commission them are used to sour assessments of their worth, but Professor John Dale’s article on The Conversation yesterday is in a class of its own…
What is lost and gained when book reviewers remain faceless? Scott Beale / Laughing Squid, laughingsquid.com

Anonymous book reviews don’t foster our literary culture

The Saturday Paper publishes anonymous book reviews and, occasionally, reviews by identified critics. That anonymity was a much-discussed feature when the paper launched in March, and the debate continues…

Top contributors

More