Monday, July 02, 2007

Among my fears.

What if I send out a manuscript, and the reviewers HATE it and talk about how stupid I am behind my back? Generally, reviewers in my field are really helpful, I think, and so this is probably a mostly irrational worry. All of the reviews I've ever gotten back on my own work have been really constructive, even if they're critical, and even if the first response is "reject." But still, are they saying things I don't see?

I'm an underling editor for one of the main journals in my discipline, so these days I get to see a lot more of the review process. Today I recieved a review from one person, who wrote some constructive (albeit terse) comments in the part of the review form the authors get to see, and then also added a comment in the part that only the editors get to see. It said,

This manuscript demonstrates profound ineptitude on the part of the authors.

Yowch.

But that answers the question. Yes, they very well may think I'm an idiot without explicitly saying so to me. (I should add that none of my papers thus far have ever not gotten published, even if it took a few revisions or a few different journals. So objectively I should believe I am not viewed as a complete moron.)

1 comment:

Ms.PhD said...

Yes, I'm sure they do this to all of us. My only question is, for how long? Will they still be talking about what turned out to be only a rough draft they rejected, years after the fact? Is that all they'll ever remember about me?

At least you get to wield the editor pen. What I wouldn't give to be on the other side of the desk at least some of the time.