Format is anachronistic, but other things are even worse. For instance, a typical review process in Nature or Cell takes around 12 months these days. Lots of w

Format is anachronistic, but other things are even worse. For instance, a typical review process in Nature or Cell takes around 12 months these days. Lots of waiting, back and forth messages, and waste. If you get rejected, switching from one journal to the other implies massive changes to format and rewriting, as the length constraints could not be more different. Computer Science has a much more dynamic publication culture.