All Questions
4,958 questions
269
votes
8
answers
25k
views
A paper I received to review has (independently) duplicated work that we are writing up. How to proceed in light of peer-review confidentiality?
I did some research with some collaborators, and we have been writing an article ("paper A") describing the work.
A few days ago I received a request to review an article ("paper B") that covers most ...
- 3,774
257
votes
8
answers
384k
views
How do you cite a Github repository?
I am working on a honours thesis and have developed a Fortran library that I would like to cite in it.
In some places they suggest to quote the documentation of the project but this is something I ...
- 2,673
167
votes
7
answers
18k
views
My paper is being cited in vaccine misinformation. What do I do?
I have recently discovered that anti-vaxxers have been citing one of my papers on Twitter and elsewhere as evidence of a specific 5G-related conspiracy theory surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine. Of ...
- 1,029
154
votes
5
answers
19k
views
What to do if a referee plagiarises the result after rejecting a paper?
I find myself in an awkward situation. Nearly two years ago I submitted a paper to a reputable mathematics journal. After 15 months it was rejected with the rationale that there had been papers ...
- 1,643
145
votes
14
answers
32k
views
How do I handle a colleague's gender change when citing their paper?
We are currently working on a conference paper where we plan to cite and discuss a paper as a related work. It was written by a colleague at the same university who has kindly offered to help us ...
- 1,376
140
votes
22
answers
37k
views
Should I simply ignore it if authors assume that I'm male in their response to my review of their article?
I received a response about a manuscript I reviewed earlier, and the authors write about the reviewer (i.e., me) and his concerns. As a woman, I'm not so keen on this.
Obviously this isn't ...
- 10.1k
135
votes
12
answers
37k
views
I am an editor for a lousy paper and I found a better algorithm than theirs. Must I share it with them?
I am handling a paper as an associate editor that proposed an algorithm that I find to be weak. In fact, I was able to show that a very simple, brute-force approach actually has a better running time ...
- 1,111
131
votes
7
answers
17k
views
Asked again to review a paper, when the authors don't wish to modify it
I have received a manuscript to review for a journal. The interesting thing is, I had already reviewed this article (exact same title, abstract and author list, almost exact same content) for another ...
- 74.1k
117
votes
5
answers
12k
views
If I request a paper through my university library, must they pay a substantial amount of money?
I was asked to referee a mathematics article, submitted for publication in a reputable journal. To evaluate it, I also wanted to look at a cited article which it claims to extend. Upon searching ...
- 26.5k
114
votes
10
answers
23k
views
Editor rejected manuscript claiming it is similar to a not-yet-published manuscript (that I haven't seen). How to proceed?
A few months ago, I submitted a manuscript. After the reviews were completed I received a rejection decision from the Associate Editor (AE). The rejection was based on the basis of a single rejection ...
- 1,013
112
votes
11
answers
15k
views
Ethical concerns regarding the review of a paper on autonomous armed drones
I would like your suggestion on a delicate matter involving a paper that I am reviewing. I will avoid giving too many details to preserve anonymity.
In this article the authors describe an algorithm ...
- 857
103
votes
10
answers
20k
views
During peer-review, should I comment on the authors' messy code?
I'm reviewing a paper in pure mathematics. A lot of results in the paper depend heavily on computer computations, and the authors have provided in the article a link to the Magma code they used for ...
- 821
101
votes
11
answers
22k
views
Why is peer review so random?
8 Scientific Papers That Were Rejected Before Going on to Win a Nobel Prize
Funding Analysis: Researchers Say NIH Grant Funding Allocation Seems No Better Than Lottery
The same paper resubmitted to ...
- 137k
101
votes
5
answers
27k
views
What should I do if I suspect one of the journal reviews I got is AI-generated?
I’ve submitted a paper to a reputable journal and received two reviews asking for a revision. One of the reviews is on-topic and helpful. The other, however, I suspect was generated by an AI based on ...
- 863
94
votes
13
answers
15k
views
Is it OK to refuse to cite paywalled papers?
I wonder how reviewers would react if authors of a submitted paper refuse to cite paywalled papers. Is it a valid reason to refuse citing some papers?
I am mostly interested in the field of computer ...
- 34.1k
94
votes
4
answers
121k
views
How do I reference the Python programming language in a thesis or a paper?
I'm writing a scientific article and a dissertation in biology, for which I used Python for simulations. Some people in our department, especially the "non-computer-people", don't know what Python is, ...
- 2,202
92
votes
9
answers
21k
views
Referee says the proof is wrong, but it is not, what to do?
About 3 months ago, my co-author and I submitted a mathematical paper to a journal. Yesterday, we got the editor's response and the paper has been rejected. The reason is that the referee thinks that ...
- 941
91
votes
3
answers
11k
views
Counter strategy against group that repeatedly does strategic self-citations and ignores other relevant research
There is a group in our small field that almost exclusively cites themselves. Their latest paper has 35% self-citations, which is 80% of the citations within the field. They only reference their own ...
- 758
88
votes
15
answers
15k
views
Why are some professors critical of even casual use of Wikipedia?
Many of the professors and lecturers I come across are very critical of Wikipedia, but they never give proper support for their claims of "Wikipedia is bullshit!". And they threaten "Do not use ...
- 819
87
votes
13
answers
15k
views
What to answer an author asking me if I reviewed his/her paper?
Suppose I review someone's paper anonymously, the paper gets accepted, and a year or two later we meet e.g. in a social event and he/she asks me "did you review my paper?". What should I answer? There ...
- 17.2k
87
votes
11
answers
47k
views
Can I, as a reviewer, tell authors to get a native English speaker to proofread their paper?
I am reviewing a paper for possible publication in a respected journal. The English in the paper is very poor. The authors are clearly not native English speakers. I want to write something to the ...
- 741
86
votes
8
answers
16k
views
Citing paywalled articles accessed via illegal web sharing
There are a few sites which offer paid articles for free. It’s something unethical, especially for those who upload to that site, but for me, it’s good for expanding knowledge.
As a readers, can we ...
- 957
86
votes
3
answers
221k
views
Are citations in abstracts considered bad style?
I'd like to know your opinion on citations in abstracts.
At my university, there is no rule on that matter so it's basically a
question of preference.
Do you think it's okay to have citations in an ...
- 963
85
votes
6
answers
70k
views
Do you list journals you have reviewed for on your CV?
Is it acceptable to list the journals you have reviewed papers for on your CV? Is it common? Do you think it’s recommended?
On the one hand, it shows that you are engaged in this necessary part of ...
- 74.1k
85
votes
8
answers
31k
views
Free, open-source substitutes for Mendeley?
Mendeley is (mainly) a proprietary social network to share basic citation data and research papers. see also
Are there any free and open source substitutes for this service?
A technical possibility:...
- 1,669
83
votes
13
answers
19k
views
Why is it bad to judge a paper by citation count?
I hear a lot from the experts that citation count is a bad idea as a measure of judging a paper. This seems simply counter-intuitive to me. I would like to know if any study has been done in this ...
- 990
82
votes
12
answers
21k
views
Is it acceptable to use non-English references in a computer science paper?
I am currently reviewing an interdisciplinary computer science paper which is heavily based on previous works in logistics and process engineering that have been unfortunately published only in German ...
- 887
81
votes
12
answers
12k
views
Why don't researchers request payment for refereeing?
One of the most criticized aspects of the current publishing scheme, is that academics do pretty much all the work for free and publishers get the money.
Why don't people just charge a fee when ...
- 2,849
80
votes
6
answers
21k
views
Is it okay to mention we're citing an article only because a reviewer told us to?
In a recent review, one reviewer said we must rework the paper in light of two other papers. One paper was a highly valuable suggestion, and we've enthusiastically taken it on board. However, the ...
- 10.1k
79
votes
7
answers
51k
views
Are TED presentations academically credible?
Many people, including myself, are fascinated by TED speakers. They provide us a new perspective. For example, see the TED talk The best stats you've ever seen by Hans Rosling.
However, when I talked ...
- 8,292
78
votes
20
answers
30k
views
Is it acceptable to have a research paper with no references?
I (an undergrad) and 2 other profs from my department have been working on something and we were thinking of submitting our work to a conference (a pretty well known one) this week. The fact is there ...
- 1,630
78
votes
6
answers
17k
views
Do you need to read a whole article before citing it?
During writing my academic paper, I need to cite a definition in a scientific paper. The other part of the paper, is irrelevant to my work.
I have been advised that if you will cite a paper, you ...
- 941
78
votes
4
answers
11k
views
During review, I found a superior solution. What now?
I received a journal paper for a review. The paper suggests a solution to an important problem, but the solution is very complicated and has mediocre performance. While reading the paper, I thought of ...
- 17.2k
77
votes
11
answers
31k
views
Is it unethical to cite a paper or book that you have never looked at?
Suppose I see that Book X is cited by several papers with reference to some particular Fact Y. I wish to cite Fact Y. As far as I know, Book X is the only reference for Fact Y.
I have never looked ...
user10885
77
votes
10
answers
12k
views
Is it common to review papers assigned to your supervisor?
Is it common to supervisors to email their students papers to review (which were apparently assigned to the supervisor, and not to the student). The field is Computer Science, but I would also like ...
- 13.9k
77
votes
4
answers
10k
views
Should I do anything if I am cited for something that wasn't in my paper?
I’ve just read a paper in which a previous paper of mine has been cited. The line in which the citation happens is something like:
It has been shown that technique X is successful in this problem [...
- 9,848
77
votes
3
answers
5k
views
A manuscript I refereed gave me an idea for a paper, not sure how to proceed
So, last week I refereed a paper for a journal. The paper in question is a reply to a previous paper by a different author: it points out a serious problem in the original paper and then proposes a ...
- 9,096
76
votes
6
answers
20k
views
Can I correct a mistake that the reviewers didn't spot in a paper that has not been accepted yet?
Recently my paper was accepted pending major revisions (i.e., not yet accepted), and while following the reviewers' comments and revising my paper, I realized that both reviewers missed a mistake that ...
- 845
76
votes
7
answers
12k
views
Is it okay for a reviewer to share an under review manuscript with their colleagues?
In a research meeting I mentioned I was doing some peer-review for a conference and disclosed the general topic it was about, without any further details. Immediately my colleagues demanded I disclose ...
- 2,756
76
votes
7
answers
51k
views
Is it acceptable to write a reference letter for yourself?
If a student needs a reference letter for graduate admissions or that sort of thing, some profs will ask the student to write a reference letter for themself before sending it off to the prof for ...
- 1,052
76
votes
3
answers
15k
views
How should I handle poor English in reviewing an article that claims to be proofread by two native English speakers?
I was asked to review an article written by non-native English speakers. I had never seen this before, but the manuscript includes a link to a certificate from a website called Textcheck that says:
...
- 741
75
votes
6
answers
12k
views
How can I deal with low-key plagiarism?
I am relatively new to academic publishing. However, there is an uncomfortable situation which I have already encountered multiple times by now (about five). It is what I would call "low-key ...
- 1,138
74
votes
14
answers
16k
views
How is it possible that [insert known crackpot] has articles published in Peer-Reviewed Journals?
Note: This question is intended to be a generic version of something that gets asked occasionally on this site. I apologize for making it overly-contrived, but it's intended to be a generic template ...
- 48.8k
72
votes
8
answers
16k
views
I got a paper to review from a journal that had rejected my earlier works, how to respond?
Recently, I got a paper to review for a journal (Elsevier) which is very reputed. The fact is that this journal had rejected two of my earlier works after keeping it under review for more than a year ...
- 13.1k
72
votes
6
answers
19k
views
What to do if reviewers reject a paper without understanding the content?
One of my friends submitted a paper to a reputable communications journal and received some reviews a week back. The paper was rejected, but the review comments were abysmal:
The language was so bad ...
- 23.2k
71
votes
6
answers
78k
views
Is there such thing as too many references for one paper?
I'm currently reviewing a paper that has an uncommonly large number of references compared to the average number for that particular venue (more than 60 versus around 30). This is a regular paper, not ...
user102
70
votes
12
answers
89k
views
Is it possible to submit a paper to a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal without a PhD and get it accepted?
Is it possible to submit a paper to a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal while not holding a PhD? More specifically, what would be the bare minimum qualifications that would grant one the possibility of ...
- 844
70
votes
7
answers
8k
views
Should a paper be reviewed in entirety, if the introduction contains plagiarized passages?
I'm very new to being a peer reviewer. I agreed to anonymously review a paper for publication, and while reading it for the first time, I was a little annoyed by the writing style. It sort of reminded ...
- 683
70
votes
6
answers
12k
views
Seemingly-irrelevant papers, all with author in common, suggested by reviewer
I recently received a decision letter calling for minor revisions prior to acceptance. One anonymous reviewer was extremely knowledgeable and provided many helpful suggestions to better explain and ...
- 833
69
votes
9
answers
15k
views
Journal published a paper, ignoring my objections as a referee
A few months back I received a request from a reputed journal to review an article. The article was in a fast-track mode because of its assumed importance. I did review it, and found that it makes ...
- 2,334