Here’s a similar outlook, from a Nobel prizewinner:
Nobel winner declares boycott of Nature and other top science journals
Randy Schekman says his lab will no longer send papers to Nature, Cell and
Science as they distort scientific process
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/09/nobel-winner-boycott-science-journals?CMP=fb_gu
Follow the link to read the article.
With a piercing insight from Jed Rothwell at Vortex:
-—————————www.mail-archive.com/search?l=vortex-l@eskimo.com&q=subject:%22Re%3A+%5BVo%5D%3ANobel+prize+winner+boycots+Nature%22—————
Re: [Vo]:Nobel prize winner boycots Nature
Jed Rothwell Tue, 10 Dec 2013 07:09:08 -0800
Someone quoted in that article makes an important point: “The system is not
meritocratic. You don’t necessarily see the best papers published in those
journals. The editors are not professional scientists, they are journalists
which isn’t necessarily the greatest problem, but they emphasise novelty
over solid work.” It isn’t widely known, but the former editors of Nature
and Sci. Am., Maddox and Piel, were not professional scientists. They did
not have PhDs. I am not saying that should have disqualified them, but it
makes you wonder how they ended up as the de facto arbiters of DoE policy.
They and the other editors they worked with seemed to have a shallow grasp
of some technical issues. Years ago I exchanged a lot e-mail messages with
them. I found myself trying to explain aspects of calorimetry and other
subjects they did not grasp, or had never heard of. I did this by pointing
them to papers by McKubre and Miles. They did not read these papers. As one
of them told me, “reading papers is not our job.”
Maddox and Piel were among the most influential opponents of cold fusion.
I am not suggesting that I knew more than Maddox. He had tremendous
knowledge of a wide range of scientific subjects. He had a much deeper,
broader education than I have, and decades of experience. A person does not
have to have a PhD to make important contributions. But I did have some
specific knowledge of hands-on experimental details that he lacked, and —
more important — that he no interest in acquiring. I guess what I am
saying is that no single person should have as much power as these people
had.
- Jed
Another Nobel Laureate speaks on censorship:
http://www.infinite-energy.com/iemagazine/issue1/colfusthe.html