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About the most negative, confrontational thing that happens in science is when a journal editor unwittingly picks a referee for a paper from a group that is in
by beloch 11y ago
About the most negative, confrontational thing that happens in science is when a journal editor unwittingly picks a referee for a paper from a group that is in direct competition with the authors of the paper, and that referee happens to be a twat. They're supposed to be anonymous, but they often reveal themselves through various idiosyncrasies.
Experimental groups often wind up working on fairly similar things, exchanging personnel, etc.. Sometimes these groups will cooperate on some things and divy up other things so that they're not stepping on each others toes too much. This works when the people in charge are capable of getting along. However, there are usually a few people in any given area that don't play well with others. These are the people that bring the public tear-down drama to conferences and the people who will obstinately race other groups to be the first to publish, even if that means using unethical means, such as filibustering the peer-review process or outright sabotaging it if they're chosen as referees.
Most people are decent, but there are a small number of assholes uniformly distributed everywhere.
- cryoshon 11y agoI've never heard of the review fillibuster before, that sounds really anti-Science and really shitty. Science can get super political to be sure... but the public tear-down is part of the scientific process despite frequently being political posturing.
- planfaster 11y agoNah, that's barely anti-Science. Anti-Science is when you go to jail for doing nothing but testing for the presence of cyanide in the walls of the USSR-reconstructed morgue/air-shelter in Auschwitz.
- JorgeGT 11y agoMany journals now allow you to explicitly name researchers you would prefer not to be selected as reviewers for your submitted paper.
- montecarl 11y agoThe most confrontational thing I see are published comments on published papers. My PhD adviser published a paper, then a guy commented on it, then he wrote a reply to the comment, then the guy wrote a reply to the reply to the comment! The final reply ended up with some pretty crazy stuff in it. Here is my favorite quotes from his reply: Or is it the other question, that it is “forbidden” to modify the holy NEB method of Prof. Dr. [Prof. Name]? We propose to read the old Hamlet: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Yes. He quoted Hamlet!
- JorgeGT 11y agoNot only quoted, but cited! Priceless :_) [10] W. Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, scene 5.