Rejecting editorial rejections revisited: are editors of ecological journals good oracles?

FAJI BRENER, A.G.; KITZBERGER, T.

Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America

Ecological Society of America

Año: 2014 vol. 95 p. 238 - 242

Progress in ecological research is basically driven by the publication of studies in peer reviewed journals. However, competition for space in high-ranking journals is severe, and these journals require an objective way to accept the best works. This ?objective way? is based on the traditional peer review process. To evaluate the quality of a manuscript, it is sent to several specialists in the same field, and the editor makes a decision based on the reviewers? comments and his/her own opinion. Overall, in a good peer review process everybody wins: the author Improves her/his knowledge, and the scientific community reads a better paper; even if the manuscript is finally submitted to a different journal. However,more and more ecological journals are skipping this fruitful process and rejecting some papers based only on the opinion of one person: the subject-editor.