ASA Connect

Hi all:

I had this experience in a peer-review for an important statistics journal.

I was asked to review a methods paper and did the following (1) Proved mathematically that the fundamental estimation procedure was invalid and (2) provided a valid alternative.   Despite this, and without any feedback to me refuting (1) above, the paper is now in press. My questions for you are

(A) Was the journal ethical in its action?

(B) Have any of you had like experiences?

Comments are welcome

Please reply as soon as possible.

Best wishes,

Jon

Hi, while I haven't read yours, I'm sure you contributed an excellent review. Your review was for a methods journal. I have been a peer reviewer for a number of years at a prominent  disease-specific (not to be named) medical journal. My comments here may not entirely apply for you.  For some reviews where I feel very strongly, I might write a variation on "I marked the paper reject. The editor may decide to overrule. I won't review another revision of the paper" or a variation "the paper is unreadable and uninterpretable. I won't review another version". And if a version shows up in my review inbox I decline. .That may work for you

Hi all:

I had this experience in a peer-review for an important statistics journal.

I was asked to review a methods paper and did the following (1) Proved mathematically that the fundamental estimation procedure was invalid and (2) provided a valid alternative.   Despite this, and without any feedback to me refuting (1) above, the paper is now in press. My questions for you are

(A) Was the journal ethical in its action?

(B) Have any of you had like experiences?

Comments are welcome

Please reply as soon as possible.

Best wishes,

Jon

Hi all:

I had this experience in a peer-review for an important statistics journal.

I was asked to review a methods paper and did the following (1) Proved mathematically that the fundamental estimation procedure was invalid and (2) provided a valid alternative.   Despite this, and without any feedback to me refuting (1) above, the paper is now in press. My questions for you are

(A) Was the journal ethical in its action?

(B) Have any of you had like experiences?

Comments are welcome

Please reply as soon as possible.

Best wishes,

Jon

Hi Jonathan,

Thank you for bringing up this point, and I am sorry that this has happened to you.  You mention that the paper is in press.  Did the authors include any of your suggestions, or is the publication without changes?  You may want to pursue different actions depending on which of these has occurred.  

I'd like to make you and others aware of an organization called the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).  Their website has lots of great information for individuals and editorial boards regarding issues related to publishing. You should find some information there on how to proceed.  I'd recommend you start with writing the editor of the journal.  You can also file a complaint directly with COPE.  I first became familiar with COPE while working with a medical association and serving on a Research Integrity Committee for their group of Journals.  This committee investigates all sorts of issues related to the society's journals and we recommend actions such as requesting authors to submit an erratum, attaching a notice of concern to the article or recommending retraction.  

Here is the link to COPEs website: Welcome to COPE

Good luck!

Hi all:

I had this experience in a peer-review for an important statistics journal.

I was asked to review a methods paper and did the following (1) Proved mathematically that the fundamental estimation procedure was invalid and (2) provided a valid alternative.   Despite this, and without any feedback to me refuting (1) above, the paper is now in press. My questions for you are

(A) Was the journal ethical in its action?

(B) Have any of you had like experiences?

Comments are welcome

Please reply as soon as possible.

Best wishes,

Jon

Dear Dr. Sammuel:

This is outstanding information. I have heard of COPE, but failed to make the connection.  The paper in question was accepted, but not yet published. Just today, I appealed to the incoming editor so we shall see what happens. I plan to give generic feedback to the membership of this forum.

I also want to commend the existence of this forum as it has provided many interesting and important exchanges.  Dr. Wasserstein's leadership is certainly appreciated.

Best wishes,

Jon

Hi Jonathan,

Thank you for bringing up this point, and I am sorry that this has happened to you.  You mention that the paper is in press.  Did the authors include any of your suggestions, or is the publication without changes?  You may want to pursue different actions depending on which of these has occurred.  

I'd like to make you and others aware of an organization called the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).  Their website has lots of great information for individuals and editorial boards regarding issues related to publishing. You should find some information there on how to proceed.  I'd recommend you start with writing the editor of the journal.  You can also file a complaint directly with COPE.  I first became familiar with COPE while working with a medical association and serving on a Research Integrity Committee for their group of Journals.  This committee investigates all sorts of issues related to the society's journals and we recommend actions such as requesting authors to submit an erratum, attaching a notice of concern to the article or recommending retraction.  

Here is the link to COPEs website: Welcome to COPE

Good luck!

Hi all:

I had this experience in a peer-review for an important statistics journal.

I was asked to review a methods paper and did the following (1) Proved mathematically that the fundamental estimation procedure was invalid and (2) provided a valid alternative.   Despite this, and without any feedback to me refuting (1) above, the paper is now in press. My questions for you are

(A) Was the journal ethical in its action?

(B) Have any of you had like experiences?

Comments are welcome

Please reply as soon as possible.

Best wishes,

Jon

Hi all:

I had this experience in a peer-review for an important statistics journal.

I was asked to review a methods paper and did the following (1) Proved mathematically that the fundamental estimation procedure was invalid and (2) provided a valid alternative.   Despite this, and without any feedback to me refuting (1) above, the paper is now in press. My questions for you are

(A) Was the journal ethical in its action?

(B) Have any of you had like experiences?

Comments are welcome

Please reply as soon as possible.

Best wishes,

Jon

In the past, I myself have been very quick to judge and get angry about this type of thing.  In this situation, I would suggest reflecting calmly and enquiring with the Associate Editor as to what happened.  No accusations of unethical behaviour, no judgements.  Approach it as a reflection on the usefulness of your review.

Think about how many times you have received a review where you felt that the reviewer missed something or didn't understand something well.  Most of the time, the reviewers will be confident that they understood enough to comment.  It could be that you missed something.  It could be a number of things (including poor practice), so it is best to gently get some more information before raising concerns more widely.

I have had some experience with poor practices at journals.  Once I have enquired to get further information and reflected on it, if I don't like the response, I may escalate to the EiC.  If I am still not satisfied, I don't review or publish there and, depending on the severity, I will also inform my network of the experience.  You could also consider writing a formal "letter to the editor" about the paper to be published - although if you have not been satisfied to this point, you may not have success.

From the other side, I have experienced authors (not reviewers) accusing the editorial board of poor practice.  As an EiC, I take this seriously and do investigate and review cases.  

P.S. Mary's advice about COPE is completely correct and I have found many useful insights there myself too.

Hi all:

I had this experience in a peer-review for an important statistics journal.

I was asked to review a methods paper and did the following (1) Proved mathematically that the fundamental estimation procedure was invalid and (2) provided a valid alternative.   Despite this, and without any feedback to me refuting (1) above, the paper is now in press. My questions for you are

(A) Was the journal ethical in its action?

(B) Have any of you had like experiences?

Comments are welcome

Please reply as soon as possible.

Best wishes,

Jon

Dear Dr. Killick:

Ordinarily I would agree with you. I handled 2 submissions of this paper where the authors did not refute the issue at hand but kept their flawed methods. On the third (and second unresponsive version), I declined to review it as nothing was new. I review under the Casella rules in the enclosure below.  In my 4 year term as AE under him, slightly under one in three were accepted. Today, per the table in the enclosure, JASA only accepts 13%. The late George Casella was an author friendly editor,  My two reviews both recommended revise and resubmit, but bad stats are dangerous, as we see in the journal Significance. 

Best,

Jon 

In the past, I myself have been very quick to judge and get angry about this type of thing.  In this situation, I would suggest reflecting calmly and enquiring with the Associate Editor as to what happened.  No accusations of unethical behaviour, no judgements.  Approach it as a reflection on the usefulness of your review.

Think about how many times you have received a review where you felt that the reviewer missed something or didn't understand something well.  Most of the time, the reviewers will be confident that they understood enough to comment.  It could be that you missed something.  It could be a number of things (including poor practice), so it is best to gently get some more information before raising concerns more widely.

I have had some experience with poor practices at journals.  Once I have enquired to get further information and reflected on it, if I don't like the response, I may escalate to the EiC.  If I am still not satisfied, I don't review or publish there and, depending on the severity, I will also inform my network of the experience.  You could also consider writing a formal "letter to the editor" about the paper to be published - although if you have not been satisfied to this point, you may not have success.

From the other side, I have experienced authors (not reviewers) accusing the editorial board of poor practice.  As an EiC, I take this seriously and do investigate and review cases.  

P.S. Mary's advice about COPE is completely correct and I have found many useful insights there myself too.

Hi all:

I had this experience in a peer-review for an important statistics journal.

I was asked to review a methods paper and did the following (1) Proved mathematically that the fundamental estimation procedure was invalid and (2) provided a valid alternative.   Despite this, and without any feedback to me refuting (1) above, the paper is now in press. My questions for you are

(A) Was the journal ethical in its action?

(B) Have any of you had like experiences?

Comments are welcome

Please reply as soon as possible.

Best wishes,

Jon