Re: [asa] Sternberg quote

James Mahaffy (mahaffy@dordt.edu) Phone: 712 722-6279
498 4th Ave NE
Biology Department FAX : 712
722-1198
Dordt College, Sioux Center IA 51250-1697
>>> "Iain Strachan" <igd.strachan@gmail.com> 03/27/07 12:44 PM >>>
On 3/27/07, drsyme@cablespeed.com <drsyme@cablespeed.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:32:15 -0700
> "Donald F Calbreath" <dcalbreath@whitworth.edu> wrote:
> > The information I have seen suggests that Sternberg did
> >follow the normal peer-review process. To do otherwise
> >would be extremely foolish.
>
> Not according to the publisher of the journal:
> http://www.biolsocwash.org/id_statement.html
>
> "Contrary to typical editorial practices, the paper was
> published without review by any associate editor;
> Sternberg handled the entire review process. The Council,
> which includes officers, elected councilors, and past
> presidents, and the associate editors would have deemed
> the paper inappropriate for the pages of the Proceedings
> because the subject matter represents such a significant
> departure from the nearly purely systematic content for
> which this journal has been known throughout its 122-year
> history. "

Come on. Most article in this an other journals are NOT reviewed by two
editors. Sure the other staff did not like this article getting into
their journal. But having an editor sending an article a couple of
reviewers is standard practice.

In fact the talk I am working on right now to give at the annual meeting
of the snake folks (2007 Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and
Herpetologists) on an extension of the historic range of massasauga will
probably only be screened by one person and I have little doubt that it
will be accepted. It is another thing when I publish it - but the I
will probably send it to the Iowa Academy of Sciences and I even get to
suggest two folks to review it. It will be likely only looked at by two
reviewers and an editor and unlike my last one that the reviewers told
me to go do more work (but it wasn't may area [it was a good student
project] - the editor interestingly enough suggested to send it back
anyway.

But then others have had more experience in the publishing game than I
do. I have too heavy a teaching load to do much during the year.

To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
Received on Tue Mar 27 21:58:37 2007