Reviewing The Reviewers

The Scientist [P. McCarthy, page 1]: Most of us have probably suspected that our manuscripts were being reviewed by ill-informed and unqualified reviewers, but rarely do we get a clear indication that such is the case. Twice within the past few years I have done the same inadvertent experiment by accidentally omitting a pivotal citation from a manuscript. Anyone qualified to review either paper should have spotted so glaring an omi

Written byArthur Shapiro

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Twice within the past few years I have done the same inadvertent experiment by accidentally omitting a pivotal citation from a manuscript.

Anyone qualified to review either paper should have spotted so glaring an omission at once--and flagged it in the review. In both cases I spotted the error myself after the manuscript had gone out for review, then sat back and waited to see if the reviewers would spot it, too.

The two manuscripts had a total of six reviewers, who among them picked a variety of nits. But not one of the reviewers caught the missing citation.

Arthur M. Shapiro
Section of Evolution and Ecology
Division of Biological Sciences
University of California
Davis, Calif. 95616

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