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    Isn't there quite obviously a tallness bias in basketball player selection? Or are we understanding different things under "bias"?
    – gerrit
    Commented Jan 16, 2014 at 9:47
  • I think you are getting stuck on the semantics of the wording I have used in the question. What I am asking is exactly what you are referring to in paragraph 3 of your answer. In order words, whether or not more elaborate and eloquent wording qualifies the article for more/better judgement, beyond what is scientifically interesting in that manuscript. Oh and I totally agree with @gerrit I think you are gravely mistaken if you think athletes are not evaluated and filtered on their physical characteristics.
    – posdef
    Commented Jan 16, 2014 at 13:34
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    @posdef: That may be, but the comments on Peter Jansson's answer suggest I'm not the only one. You asked about a native speaker bias, not a writing quality bias. Also, again, I don't see it as a "bias" if it's just a preference for qualities that are overtly valued. That is, selecting things that are closer to what you say you're looking for isn't a bias, it's just following your own rules. So if a journal says it wants well-written papers and then accepts the best-written papers, that's not a bias. Likewise, picking tall b-ball players isn't bias unless tallness is unduly weighted.
    – BrenBarn
    Commented Jan 16, 2014 at 18:37
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    I also interpreted the question the way BrenBarn did. It seems now that the question is meant to be "Is the sheer quality of the writing of a paper taken into account when deciding whether to accept the paper?" That is really not the question that was asked, however. Commented Feb 13, 2014 at 1:01