All Questions
Tagged with publications editors
275
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
2
answers
3k
views
Technical editor changed author order of the paper
Recently, I attended a conference as a corresponding author of a paper with five authors. After the paper was published in the conference proceedings, I realized that the technical editor changed the ...
- 2,256
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
31
votes
2
answers
16k
views
What corrections can you make on galley proofs?
When I receive galley proofs of a paper, I look at possible errors introduced by the copy-editing team. But while I proofread the article, there are sometimes small mistakes I'd like to fix, which ...
- 73.5k
30
votes
2
answers
3k
views
What might the editor do if my supervisor contacts a journal to claim authorship of a paper?
When I was doing my PhD project, I got an idea to solve a different but related problem. However, my supervisor said neither the motivation nor the initial result were interesting, and so he refused ...
- 489
29
votes
6
answers
8k
views
Why would a "poorly written" paper get a reject and resubmit decision rather than major revision?
Recently, I got a reject and resubmit decision from a reputed mathematics journal. I received two referee reports: the first referee suggested improving the presentation, with no recommendation of ...
- 2,035
27
votes
3
answers
20k
views
Why become a journal editor?
I know peer-reviewing research papers is a lot of work, but it is something that as a scientist in academia you must do. However, you are not required to become an editor of a journal. It seems to be ...
- 10.9k
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
24
votes
2
answers
484
views
How to act as an editor?
I have been on both the author and the referee sides, but I was wondering how editors approach their task. In particular, to what level of detail do you read the paper you assign to referees, and when ...
- 1,656
22
votes
1
answer
813
views
When suggesting referee names, where do you draw the line for conflict of interest?
Journal submission guidelines in my field typically require the submitting author to provide the editor with a list of potential referees. The journal guidelines ask to suggest people with whom we ...
- 73.5k
21
votes
5
answers
7k
views
Is it normal that the editor says "the referee report is for editor's eye only so I cannot share it with you"?
I recently receive an editorial letter that is unwilling to share referee reports. The letter explicitly mentions the existence of such report but the editor don't want to send it to me.
Is not ...
- 2,155
21
votes
1
answer
13k
views
Sound reasons for excluding a reviewer
I am about to submit a paper, and I'm asked whether I want anybody to be excluded from consideration as a reviewer. I also need to state a reason. I briefly considered listing someone who - I have ...
- 7,896
21
votes
1
answer
665
views
Is there a website for rating and reviewing journals openly?
I always found remarkable that whilst the job of all my colleagues boils down to publishing papers, everyone seems so reserved and hesitant when it comes to discussing journals openly.
For instance, ...
- 9,244
20
votes
4
answers
5k
views
Re-write paper to make it truly double blind
When I was a PhD student, I wrote a collection of papers that comprised a large portion of my dissertation. These papers were written using grant money from one of my advisors. (I had two advisors. ...
- 19k
20
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is it permissible to request a new reviewing editor?
I submitted a manuscript to an established ecology journal and received reasonable reviews. The reviewing editor requested a revision. However, the comments from the reviewing editor were abysmal. ...
- 303
19
votes
5
answers
7k
views
Should I revise and resubmit?
I have just received a decision letter for my submitted manuscript to an Elsevier journal. It was a revise and resubmit (R&R). Two reviewers comments were included in the decision letter. One of ...
- 429
19
votes
5
answers
5k
views
Editor invites many reviewers simultaneously
I have been reviewing for a particular prestigious journal in my field for some time. I noticed that the editor invites a significant number of reviewers (4-7) simultaneously. In most cases, not all ...
- 3,438
19
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Journal unsatisfied with revisions after acceptance, author proofs and copyright
We recently had a c.s. theory / networks paper accepted at a special issue after addressing a major revision. After we got the letter of acceptance, author proofs, signed the copyright release, etc., ...
19
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Is it okay to inquire about the status of a paper when the online submission system shows no update three months after submission?
Around 3 months ago, I submitted a paper to a Math journal for peer-review through an online submission system. The same day I received in my e-mail an acknowledgement saying that the paper had been ...
- 1,119
17
votes
3
answers
6k
views
Referee recommends paper rejection with no further comment - how to react?
I submitted a paper to a journal, after 2 months and some days of review I get a rejection with a referee report "I find the paper not suitable for the journal", without any further comments and ...
- 367
17
votes
2
answers
10k
views
Should I withdraw my paper because review is taking too long?
I submitted an article to a prestigious journal JCR Q1 about 20 months ago. It took more than 6 months for them to send the article for review. But it was worth it. The reviewers did a good job and ...
- 597
17
votes
3
answers
6k
views
How to prevent desk rejection when trying to publish papers which are counter to the prevailing view (but still legitimate)?
I wonder if there exists, at least in plans, a centralized system that examines editors' decisions in journals, a kind of "appellate court" in peer-review publishing.
Recently I have been trying to ...
- 661
17
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Journal submission refered to Editor-in-Chief
I had submitted to a reputed computer vision journal. Both the reviewers (there were only two) marked it as "reject" with comments that alluded to the fact that they had actually "missed the point". ...
- 385
17
votes
3
answers
5k
views
Submitting multiple distinct papers to the same journal
I've recently submitted three papers to the same top journal over a period of two weeks. Can this fact alone impact on the chances of any of the papers being accepted? There is no overlap of content ...
- 4,082
17
votes
1
answer
711
views
Is copyediting good for an academic career?
I have recently been involved in managing a special issue in a scientific journal. The chief-editor was somehow appreciative of my work and now wants me to join the journal's board as a copyeditor. I ...
- 461
17
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How do editors publish in their own journals?
I was invited to review a paper in which the journal's Editor-in-Chief is a co-author. I do not mind, but raised the question that this peer-review is no longer blind. The co-author can see who wrote ...
- 171
16
votes
7
answers
6k
views
My result is accepted in a journal as an errata, but the editors want to change the authorship
We submitted a result claiming that a paper by an associate editor (of the same journal) contained a proposition that is proven mistaken by us, and furthermore, the proof of a theorem is incomplete.
...
- 4,682
15
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Can frequent messages to an editor about the status of a paper under review be a cause for rejection?
I have submitted a paper on mathematics to a journal and it was there for more than one year. I asked the editor many times about the reason of the review delay. At the end the paper was rejected with ...
- 481
15
votes
2
answers
3k
views
A year + for first review, one referee report in, want to withdraw paper
A paper of mine has been under review for more than a year now. About 6 months ago I heard from the journal that one referee report is in while they are waiting for the 2nd. The editor promised he ...
user9734
15
votes
2
answers
816
views
Do journal editors disallow paper from college X to be reviewed by someone from college X?
What is the general opinion among editors about whether my paper should be submitted to review to academics from the same University/department? Will this ever happen? If it does happen, isn't this ...
- 2,085
15
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How to respond to an editor's post-review comments suggesting major changes I'm not willing to make?
I submitted a paper (in applied mathematics) to a journal about a year and a half ago. I received the first feedback from the Editor in Chief about a year later (the reviewing process for this journal ...
- 151
15
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How do I address my research publication being 'scooped'?
Back in spring 2016, I submitted a manuscript for publication. I revised the manuscript in winter 2016 and have been waiting for reviews since then. Two of the three reviewers responded in a timely ...
- 409
15
votes
1
answer
660
views
How to complain about an abusive editor?
It is well known in my field that a particular good journal has an editor-in-chief that frequently asks authors to cite a particular (largely unrelated) paper whenever he has the chance.
Looking at ...
- 4,082
14
votes
6
answers
6k
views
Is it bad to ask the editor about the status of a submission on seeing that referees' reports were submitted a week ago?
This question is about inquiring regarding paper status.
I had submitted a paper, and recently I just discovered that the manuscript tracking system shows that the editorial committee has received ...
- 7,684
14
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Are reviewers chosen from among the editorial board of a journal?
If, in a certain international journal where I have submitted, the journal webpage lists the editorial board, should I expect that the possible reviewers of my paper are selected from among the ...
- 229
14
votes
4
answers
3k
views
How detailed should one be in writing the referee's report?
When writing a referee's report for an editor of a journal, does one always aim and try to be as brief as possible, saying yes or no to the publication (giving a couple of sentences in support of one'...
- 480
14
votes
2
answers
500
views
Favoring citations in the same journal
I have once, some time ago, received a rejection notice in which the journal editor made what I thought was a peculiar comment. The reviewers all found that the work was good, but one emitted a doubt ...
- 73.5k
14
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Should I contact the editor-in-chief about a senior editor's lack of communication?
I submitted a paper to the top journal in my field. The journal's home page sets 120 days for a decision as a goal. Recent stats suggest 60 days to initial decision is more typical.
It has now been ...
- 241