All Questions
4,958 questions
40
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is it normal to find unknown work during peer-review process?
I worked on my research for about 2 years and recently submitted a paper to a reputed conference. The referee reports came back and one of the referees pointed out papers that I should have ...
- 381
40
votes
3
answers
7k
views
Asked to cite papers for money
I was recently contacted by someone claiming to run a "decentralized collaborative team" who cite each other's papers and offering me money for citing their papers ($10 per citation, paid ...
- 501
40
votes
3
answers
20k
views
Are there any journals that pay reviewers?
Being a young researcher myself I received a comment from my colleague that some of the journals are paying reviewers for the reviewing process.
When I gave it a thought, it started to make more ...
- 531
40
votes
3
answers
13k
views
Should you thank helpful referees in the acknowledgements section of a paper?
I submitted a paper to a [science] journal and received some particularly constructive feedback from the referees. I am inclined to add something to the effect of
We are grateful to the referees for ...
- 1,333
39
votes
5
answers
10k
views
Is poor English grammar and writing style overlooked in otherwise strong math paper submissions?
Is poor English grammar and writing style overlooked by peer reviewers and editors in otherwise strong math paper submissions?
- 401
39
votes
4
answers
11k
views
How to deal with an unreasonable reviewer asking to cite irrelevant articles?
Two years ago, when I was doing my master’s degree, I was working on a computational project. My supervisor was well-known in the field and a highly reputed person. We were doing a great job, trying ...
- 1,405
39
votes
4
answers
8k
views
How should I decline a referee request for the paper which I refereed before?
I have received a referee request for a paper that I refereed and rejected a few months ago. I would like to decline the request because although the recent journal's rank is lower than the previous ...
- 399
39
votes
9
answers
2k
views
Scope for the role of peer reviewer
As a young scholar I frequently struggle with knowing the extent to which I should be critical of particular components of papers I am reviewing. I can formulate a rough hierarchy between major ...
- 3,591
39
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Value of light-to-none peer reviewed pay-to-publish articles
I have been approached by an international student about doing a PhD with me. As an MSc student in his home country he has published 3 articles in pay-to-publish venues, that are known to have little ...
- 105k
39
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Should referees assume that authors will see the full report if their paper is rejected?
I have now more than once had the following series of experiences as a referee of mathematics papers:
Elite Journal A sends me a paper. I find some problems with it, some small and some large, and ...
- 551
39
votes
3
answers
3k
views
How to review a paper that relies heavily on references to unpublished work?
I am currently doing a (blind) review of a paper for a Journal in the engineering field. The manuscript seems okay so far but relies to a large extent on a unpublished paper, cited as Miller et al. ...
- 1,155
39
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Referee report ignored and not sent to authors [closed]
I am early in my career (postdoc) and don't get many papers to review. Thus when I do, I try to put in the work, do a good job, and write a constructive report that is actually useful to the authors. ...
- 353
38
votes
7
answers
11k
views
I just got invited to referee an article! Is it OK to share this achievement on social media?
I am very proud of this achievement and I am thinking about sharing the email to social media. Is it okay to post it as long as I remove confidential information, e.g. manuscript id, title, author?
...
user156589
38
votes
4
answers
7k
views
How do some researchers consistently get published in venues with low acceptance rates?
I'm more interested in answers from researchers in the field of computer science/electrical engineering. Having said that, readers in a different discipline observing such phenomenon are welcome to ...
- 7,382
38
votes
3
answers
7k
views
Is it acceptable, as a Reviewer, to ask the Editor about another reviewer?
I recently reviewed a manuscript submitted to a Journal. Today, I received the editor's response to the authors, which included all the reviews made by the (anonymous) reviewers.
I was particularly (...
- 1,161
38
votes
6
answers
5k
views
Is it ethical to obtain journal articles from places other than the publisher's official sites?
When I am at home and looking for journal articles I often find article PDFs through google that have been uploaded to various websites (e.g., universities, institutions, arbitrary websites, etc...). ...
- 713
38
votes
6
answers
9k
views
Should I point out a flaw in a paper, which will likely result in withdrawal and resubmission, before I start to write the review?
The paper I just got to review consists of Theorem A and its Corollary B, the latter settling a major open problem in the field, it is said.
Unfortunately, the problem is not open, it was done in an ...
- 1,678
38
votes
5
answers
6k
views
Should arguments based on the proponent's gender be used in a grant proposal?
Recently I have reviewed a project from a female proponent. Among the scientific content there was a section about the under-representation of women in a specific field - saying that, on top of all ...
- 4,396
38
votes
7
answers
6k
views
Being told a conflict of interest is acceptable for paper review
I was recently asked to review a paper. I feel like there is a conflict of interest as (i) I frequently collaborate with one of the authors, (ii) I discussed the paper with the authors while they were ...
38
votes
10
answers
6k
views
Dealing with rejection anxiety as a reviewer
I am not very experienced as a reviewer, and I often find myself stressing over recommending rejection, even for the articles which I think are clearly low-quality and unsuitable for publication in a ...
- 401
38
votes
2
answers
5k
views
What do you do if you have developments on your paper during the long peer review process?
We all know that the peer review process of a manuscript can take months, and months, and more months. In this period, one continues to research, and sometimes your manuscript keeps experiencing small ...
- 3,114
38
votes
5
answers
6k
views
Paper rejected based on "informal review" - any point in appealing?
I've recently been trying to get one of my papers published, and have come across the following issue. I started by submitting it to a fairly high-impact journal. It got three reviews, two of which ...
- 541
38
votes
5
answers
4k
views
In peer-review, is it common for a reviewer to be shown and asked to comment on other reviewers' reports?
Some months ago, I was asked to review a paper for a computer science conference. I submitted my report about a week before the deadline, and I strongly recommended acceptance subject to a few minor ...
- 3,774
38
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Can I talk about articles I'm refereeing?
For the first time, I've been asked to referee an article for a journal, and a prestigious one. I work in Maths, so the article has been online as a preprint on arXiv for some time, and it was on the ...
- 831
38
votes
7
answers
6k
views
Is it appropriate to ask colleagues opinions when reviewing a paper?
Several times my supervisor has asked me for my opinion on papers he is reviewing. I find this helpful as it encourages me to read things I otherwise would not, helps me understand how to review ...
- 3,610
37
votes
8
answers
18k
views
Which review recommendation should I give to maximize the likelihood that a manuscript is rejected?
DISCLAIMER: As some readers have found the following question and prior title (How to best kill a manuscript as peer reviewer) outrageously unethical, I want to clarify that, by asking this question, ...
- 3,500
37
votes
7
answers
11k
views
Why is it acceptable to cite unpublished works?
If an article, theorem, etc. is unpublished, presumably the work is only available to people who track down the author and get a draft copy. Today we have arXiv and can find many preprints on the ...
- 515
37
votes
4
answers
12k
views
Should I let my professor know that I cited a text written by him....that I pirated from online
I wrote an essay for a professor of mine, in which I cited a book he had written. As it so happens, the citation is based on my having obtained a (most likely) pirated PDF copy of the book. The text ...
- 11.6k
37
votes
3
answers
8k
views
Twitter changes behavior after submitting a research paper about it to conference. What to do?
Twitter announced it would begin distancing itself from the requirement that all tweets could only contain 140 characters by no longer counting some things – like media attachments or @ replies – ...
- 3,609
37
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Citing different papers which use different notation for the same concept,
Not sure if this is the place to ask about this. But for lack of knowledge of a better resource, I turn here.
When citing papers which use the different notation for the same model, is it better to ...
- 481
37
votes
3
answers
6k
views
I changed a word from a source, how do I cite it correctly?
I'm writing an analytical summary on Meditation II of Descartes from the compendium we have been given at school. We have been told to use this as our main source. Nevertheless, there is this specific ...
- 621
37
votes
10
answers
7k
views
Should I agree to review a paper that I do not fully understand?
I recently received a request to subreview a paper for a top computer science conference. While it is related to my field of research, it is extremely long (the conference does not have a page limit) ...
- 17.2k
37
votes
2
answers
7k
views
The editor mixed up the reviews and rejected my paper based on the reviews of a different paper! Now they're denying everything. How to proceed?
I have heard lots of stories about rejection based on unfair reviews, etc. But this is a new one for me, and I wanted to seek the Academia SE's advice...
We recently submitted a paper (let's call it A)...
- 653
37
votes
6
answers
191k
views
How can I cite the same reference in successive sentences?
I've just read a paper that cited the same reference in two successive sentences:
This is the first sentence (xxxx 2013). This is the second sentence
(xxxx 2013).
Up until now, I would have ...
- 1,983
37
votes
6
answers
117k
views
How to cite my own submitted but not yet published work?
I plan to submit part of my current work to conference A. I then wish to submit my whole work to a more prestigious conference B. As for the part submitted to A, there is no point of repeating it ...
- 5,887
37
votes
1
answer
7k
views
Two papers from different authors with identical content – which to reference?
I am currently undertaking a project as a part of a grad course I am taking. While making some research on the use of medical parallel manipulators, I found two research papers written by different ...
- 677
37
votes
3
answers
60k
views
How should 'van'-names be ordered in a bibliography?
How would names with 'van', written in the Dutch style - e.g. van Beukering, J., be ordered in a bibliography?
Do we count the 'van' element so that e.g. van Beukering, J. would be some point after ...
- 785
37
votes
6
answers
1k
views
Open versus Blind reviewing process
A question I have been wondering for a while is if there exists an actual proof that a blind reviewing process (i.e. where the reviewers are anonymous, and the reviews not published) is better than an ...
user102
37
votes
8
answers
33k
views
Is it plagiarism (or bad practice) to cite reviews instead of source material directly? [duplicate]
My first source of information when preparing a manuscript are reviews. If up-to-date and comprehensive, I feel I can create most of my introduction by rephrasing and citing them. Nevertheless, ...
- 892
36
votes
13
answers
13k
views
Can I recommend rejection of a paper after simply reading its Abstract and Introduction?
I am reviewing a paper of a top-tier computer science conference. After reading the abstract and introduction of the paper, I think that the paper does not have that standard to make it up to the ...
- 1,067
36
votes
10
answers
12k
views
How to respond to "you must be reviewer #X of my paper!"
Say in a face-to-face conversation,
if a researcher says "You must be reviewer #X of my paper!", which is true, how should one respond?
(I doubt this would be field-dependent, but I'm ...
- 2,131
36
votes
5
answers
8k
views
May my distinguished referee award be withdrawn if I inform the editors that I've actually left academia?
I left academia years ago and am self-employed, but haven't stopped refereeing papers for one of the journals I published a few papers in. Now I've been informed by the editors that I've been selected ...
- 471
36
votes
8
answers
8k
views
What to do with authors who ignore all the criticisms and suggestions from reviewers?
In reviewing a paper in analysis (mathematics), I provided a detailed review report that I feel was not too harsh (at least well within the realm of reasonable).
Today, the authors came back with a ...
- 2,275
36
votes
8
answers
12k
views
What to do if a reviewer's question is nonsense
I have received a reviewer comment that is not understandable. Specifically, the comment asks that I show that X is true, but I never mention X in the whole paper and X is not even related to my work. ...
- 829
36
votes
5
answers
12k
views
Are 'please cite my paper' emails socially accepted?
I am a PhD student in physics. A few months ago, I submitted a paper (which has meanwhile been accepted, but not yet published). The preprint is on arXiv.
Now, I saw that a few days ago, another ...
- 779
36
votes
5
answers
4k
views
What are the downsides of using arXiv references instead of conference/journal references for the same paper?
I read in the instructions for one conference:
Please do not use arXiv references for papers that have been published at official venues such as conferences, journals or workshops. Please make the ...
- 34.1k
36
votes
7
answers
8k
views
A bad feeling about first published papers
I was taking a look at my first published papers, which are published in (peer-reviewed) A*/A/B level proceedings. Thanks to these papers, I finished my PhD a few years ago.
I was surprised by the ...
- 5,432
36
votes
4
answers
5k
views
Is it possible for reviewers to mistakenly reject a quality paper?
If I am not wrong, turbo codes was submitted to the ICC conference and rejected but accepted later on.
I want to know if there are other similar works (strong works) that were rejected at first but ...
- 567
36
votes
3
answers
9k
views
After publishing many articles in the last few years, why does my work have few citations?
During last 3 years I have published 17 articles, but I have only 15 citations (excluding self citation), which I find disappointing.
My articles have 100s of downloads almost every month. They seem ...
- 5,141
36
votes
5
answers
18k
views
How much time should I spend on reviewing a paper?
I never tried to avoid becoming a sub-reviewer, and still, this question made me wonder. How much time should I, as a PhD student, spend on a review of a paper that my advisor gave me to do? Does the ...
- 807