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Thursday, June 2, 2011

Micro-rejections

Every year in December the peer-review journal Environmental Microbiology publishes a selection of reviewer comments, which are basically mean rejections. I suppose its a stab at scientific humor or a showing of how aggressive and mean scientists can be. Here are a few top comments from this year:*

  • The biggest problem with this manuscript, which has nearly sucked the will to live out of me, is the terrible writing style.
  • This is an interesting manuscript, not because of is results, but because of its complete ignorance of due scientific process
  • I like lipids, but they have their limitations, which appear to have been overlooked in this article
  • This was a possible candidate for the "worst use of statistics to substantiate a falsehood" award
  • I nearly said reject, but then I recalled that I have a hangover and am feeling grump
I think that last comment is probably often true of the fate of our writing. *With thanks, via Harper's Magazine.

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