Dennis D. McDonald (ddmcd@ddmcd.com)consults from Alexandria Virginia. His services include writing & research, proposal development, and project management.
What we don’t know from the Post article is why anyone would defend useless reports. Are they really useless? Does someone still find them useful? Have they turned into consultants’ and staff employment programs? Or would the programs being reported on feel “slighted” if a congressionally mandated report were no longer required?
I think this is another case where to change behavior you need to change motivation and the only way to that in such a complex environment is through education and through support of viable alternatives.
In “Stop deifying ‘peer review’ of journal publications” Jonathan Eisen skillfully walks the reader through three realities of how peer review works with scientific journals: