9

I have been asked to serve as the (only) referee on a paper that is in my field, but is not within my specific area of expertise. As far as I can recall, this paper seems to be on a topic that is also being independently worked on by a large collaboration of established researchers in the field. The work I am reviewing seems to be OK, though not especially good. I am under the impression, though I am not sure, that the large collaboration is working on a much more detailed and thorough version of the same work, but they have not published it yet. Should this affect my review in any way?

Improve this question
3
  • 1
    Suggest to the editor to approach members of that group as additional referees. Then write your own review anyway.
    – Bergi
    Jan 22, 2021 at 22:45
  • 2
    @Bergi An author on a competing, unpublished work would have a huge conflict of interest and could not serve as a referee
    – thegreatemu
    Jan 22, 2021 at 23:09
  • @thegreatemu Sure, but OP said "I am under the impression, though I am not sure". The potential referee would know whether they are currently authoring on the topic :-)
    – Bergi
    Jan 23, 2021 at 1:30

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
39

No. Jugde the paper based on the currently publicly available knowledge. The authors are not to blame for future knowledge.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .