Modern plague

Since I was just talking about publications: one of the corner-stones of the modern publishing business is the peer review process. Non-scientists usually have a hard time to believe what this term actually means. Believe me, I've had a hard time too.

In short, peer review means that you have to read the manuscripts of absolute strangers and provide an authoritative and tactfully written review which details the reasons for acceptance or rejection. All for the editors of the journals for which you pay to publish, and for which you pay to read, and all for free, of course. That's right, we don't get anything for that. Some of the journals send a Christmas card, but the main motivation is that the community sells it as an honor and a moral obligation.

That wouldn't be a problem if they'd ask you once a month, and you had nothing more important to do anyway. I'm currently getting asked twice a week, and I know that in 95% in all cases, the manuscript under consideration is from China or Korea and I will reject it anyway.

Why? Well, let me quote an insider:

'One Chinese scientist has referred to the majority of China's publications as “pollution"'

Poorly written, zero content. And if they continue to flood the journals with their trash, the peer review system is going to end.