Electronic Journals in Biology -- Is it time?

[Terence P. Ma]

In article <9205041445.AA19161 at genbank.bio.net> T80SMS1 at NIU.bitnet writes:
>RE: Anonymous peer review
>
>There is a VERY good reason why the current system has evolved.
>Being reviewed can be an ego-bruising process.  Even when the
>suggestions are correct, useful and constructive it is
>difficult to be critiqued on something that you have spent
>several years of your life on.  The system allows reviewers to
>state HONEST opinions without worrying about retaliation.

I remember a certain very well known neuroscientist I know who used
to sign all his reviews for the Journal of Neurophysiology (probably
one of the most important journals in my field).  He tells of the
time he was invited to give a seminar at an institution out of the
blue.  He agreed to go and went.  With the exception of the hour
grudgingly given for his seminar, the rest of the time was spent by
an investigator who had gotten a tough review (rejecting his paper)
from this neuroscientist trying to justify his science and get the
reviewer to retract his review so that the paper might be
published.  The other reviewer did not sign his review and also
concluded that the paper should be rejected.
-- 
Terence P. Ma, Ph.D.		     VOICE:	601-984-1654
Department of Anatomy		     FAX:	601-984-1655
University of Mississippi Med. Ctr.  INTERNET:	tpm at anat.UMSMED.EDU
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