Jul. 27th, 2018
So This Is Publishing Hell
Jul. 27th, 2018 03:21 pmThe only Hell worse than being edited by a committee is being edited by a committee where half the reviewers do not understand your stuff and the half that do understand want it to be the article they would write on this topic rather than the article you actually wrote.
Reviewer: "Why didn't you discuss X."
Me: Because I have absolutely zero interest in X. X is not in the least related to the subject of my article, which is Y.
Reviewer: But X is really important.
Me: Yes, I'm sure it is. This is no doubt why you specialize in X and write about it all the time. But it really has nothing to do with Y.
Reviewer: How can you say that? I am an authority on Y and X is definitely related to Y.
Me: The fact that your department teaches classes in both X and Y and that you sometimes teach a seminar on "how X is related to Y" does not make you an authority on Y.
(this conversation only happened in my head.)
Reviewer: "Why didn't you discuss X."
Me: Because I have absolutely zero interest in X. X is not in the least related to the subject of my article, which is Y.
Reviewer: But X is really important.
Me: Yes, I'm sure it is. This is no doubt why you specialize in X and write about it all the time. But it really has nothing to do with Y.
Reviewer: How can you say that? I am an authority on Y and X is definitely related to Y.
Me: The fact that your department teaches classes in both X and Y and that you sometimes teach a seminar on "how X is related to Y" does not make you an authority on Y.
(this conversation only happened in my head.)