Wednesday, October 04, 2006

[academicsecret] 10/04/2006 04:09:03 PM

Oh Fraud, so sorry to hear about this! I wish I had a solution for you. I think even senior people with considerable experience in this realm wouldn't know what to tell you. This aspect of academia, while incredibly important, is also incredibly messed up. And to think that entire careers (and that's not an exaggeration) make or break on the stupid uninformed reviews of just one or two people is downright depressing. (After all, if you get that one paper in just before you go on the job market, it can determine where you get your first job, which I'm sure can have serious implications for the rest of one's career.)

I don't think this will help in this case, but one possibility people don't often employ (I never have), but could be helpful depending on the right circumstances (particular editor) may be to write a note to the editor in the submission letter mentioning that you request the paper not be sent to reviewer type A, because such reviewer seems to exhibit an outright bias (phrased very professionally of course). Unless the editor is an AH, they may take that into consideration.

Of course, the problem in your case now is that the issue is not about one subdiscipline fighting against another or some such thing. I really have no idea what I would do. Is it possible to do neither.. neither present the large or the small as the focus, but just present as a more general example? (I'm sort of laughing/crying as I write that recognizing how ridiculous it is given that I know nothing about your paper, or probably your entire field.)

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Posted by Navy Blue Blob to academicsecret at 10/04/2006 04:09:03 PM