peer review

Elaine Morgan (Elaine@desco.demon.co.uk)
Fri, 20 Jan 1995 14:59:05 +0000

Some correspondents have implied that science writers
publish books rather than scientific papers only
if they are either chicken or greedy. So I cannot
resist posting this quotation from the current issue of
Science (p265)

"Reviewers may be defensive about a manuscript that
provides too large a deviation from received wisdom
and perhaps even threatens the reigning paradigm. If
you are brilliant enough to come up with such material
it may be wise to publish it in less shocking increments
or in a book."

I hasten to disown the "brilliant" epithet because it
was not my theory. But the advice is good. It is also
the best or only strategy for those whom the reviewers
cannot bring themselves to regard as their peers

Elaine Morgan