All Questions
140
questions
134
votes
12
answers
37k
views
I am an editor for a lousy paper and I found a better algorithm than theirs. Must I share it with them?
I am handling a paper as an associate editor that proposed an algorithm that I find to be weak. In fact, I was able to show that a very simple, brute-force approach actually has a better running time ...
- 1,101
54
votes
4
answers
14k
views
What to do when you notice that a value in your paper is wrong, once it is accepted but before it is published?
8 months ago, I have submitted my paper to the top journal in my field and finally it got accepted. Unfortunately, I have found one wrong table entry (Experiment Section), which is not a logical value ...
- 5,266
52
votes
6
answers
114k
views
When / how should I ask about a manuscript's status in review?
I have a manuscript that has been in review for 60 days. The journal asks for reviews within four weeks. At what point is it acceptable (and not detrimental) to contact the editor for an update? How ...
- 3,305
43
votes
6
answers
8k
views
Is it common for Chinese nationals to turn down review requests?
I am an associate editor for some international scientific journals. Unsurprisingly, I receive a number of submissions from Chinese scholars (working in China), which go through the standard peer ...
- 441
43
votes
3
answers
6k
views
How to tell reviewers that I can't update my results
I spent a lot of time during my post-doc doing a big-data analysis using cloud credits paid for by a grant. I got the research conducted, written up, and submitted to a journal. The modeling I did ...
- 1,043
42
votes
4
answers
5k
views
Published papers with incorrect solutions of famous problems: how to raise concerns with editors?
I recently discovered the following two papers:
Bruckman, Paul S. A proof of the Collatz conjecture. Internat. J. Math. Ed. Sci. Tech. 39 (2008), no. 3, 403–407, DOI: 10.1080/00207390701691574.
...
- 134k
41
votes
2
answers
4k
views
How to respond to a perplexing review?
I've received a perplexing peer-review to a submitted paper of mine. The editor asks for major revisions, and sent us two reviews. The first one is serious and raises good points: we'll work, amend ...
- 73.5k
40
votes
4
answers
11k
views
How to deal with an unreasonable reviewer asking to cite irrelevant articles?
Two years ago, when I was doing my master’s degree, I was working on a computational project. My supervisor was well-known in the field and a highly reputed person. We were doing a great job, trying ...
- 1,407
40
votes
6
answers
5k
views
Are you permitted to forward the reviews from a rejected manuscript when submitting to a new journal?
Suppose I have a paper rejected from a top tier journal. The anonymous reviews highlight a number of strengths of my paper, but ultimately judge that the paper does not merit publication in that lofty ...
- 18.1k
35
votes
8
answers
28k
views
Why do editors sometimes accept a paper even if a reviewer recommends rejection?
For the last many days, I have a question in mind related with the editorial decision of accepting or rejecting the manuscript after peer-review:
Few days back I got a review report from a very ...
- 2,035
31
votes
5
answers
12k
views
What happens if the editor cannot find reviewers?
I submitted to a journal a couple of months ago. The editorial flow is somehow quick and very transparent. I receive notifications for all events happening to the manuscript.
Unfortunately, the ...
user7112
26
votes
6
answers
7k
views
How can editors and reviewers detect data manipulation?
I am preparing a paper in the field of Computer Science.
In order to report test results, we usually run a number of tests and report the average of those tests.
For each test, we generate random ...
- 12.3k
25
votes
4
answers
2k
views
As an editor, what measures can I implement to prevent image/photo manipulation?
There's been a case of alleged data manipulation in a recent Nano Letters paper (initial report here; now-retracted paper):
You can surely make your own opinion on whether the images have been ...
- 73.5k
24
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Recommended rejection of a paper, but invited to review the paper again
I was recently asked to review a paper, and ended up recommending a rejection of the paper. The journal has, apparently, asked the authors to revise their paper, and the journal has come back to me ...
- 8,518
24
votes
3
answers
1k
views
When peer reviewers are public/open, are they less likely to be critical of a manuscript?
I have been peer reviewing scholarly manuscripts for more than 10 years, and I am always concerned that the quality of my reviews might be impacted by the fact that my name is made public to authors ...
- 3,460