New media might just be able to change even the oldest of traditions.

With the Internet so prevalent in today’s world, some professors are trying to take advantage of the exposure the World Wide Web can offer. This is a major deferral from the way peer review conventionally works. Traditionally when professors want to publish submissions to journals, the piece is subjected to evaluation by experts who have the scholarly credentials to decide the quality of the work.

When essays are posted online on scholarly digital network websites such as MediaCommons, users can review the work by leaving comments on the site. This might seem like an obvious step, but it can have drawbacks.

“Traditional academia always seems to be a bit behind in technology,” said Cindy Reynolds, graduate assistant in the New Media Institute.

This type of peer review can open a door to the public that is usually only opened for specialized experts on research topics and can lead to thoughtful discussion on the matter. But it could also lead to too open of a process, with anyone saying anything that comes to mind, much like the academically avoided Wikipedia site.

To students — who are usually given strict instructions to only use credible, scholarly sources for research papers and avoid unsubstantiated online forums — the idea of researchers using scholarly online networks to review papers and research might seem alien.

Abbie Robinson, a junior pre-journalism major from Douglasville, said it could lead to helpful insight from people who normally wouldn’t get a say — but that might be for a reason.

“The people who review articles like that do it because they know what they are talking about,” she said. “If professors are taking advice from people they don’t know on the Internet, how will they know they can trust that advice?”

Anthropology Professor Mark Williams said academia can be torn both ways. Though more people will be able to see your work quickly, using Internet sites is also leading to a more informal review process.

“With the Internet there’s always good, bad and ugly,” Williams said. “The Internet will get more important to academia, but it depends what the field believes.”