Fast(er) Track Peer Review

(New York, NY) - BREAKING: Following the recent announcement of a fast-track peer-review option at Scientific Reports, competing journals are pleased to announce their own revolution.

For just $749, authors can now opt-in to ReviewWare's RPS [rock–paper–scissors] peer-review track, which decides each scientific manuscript's fate by a single game of rock–paper–scissors* between the Corresponding Author and a qualified External Referee.

Source: Science Daily

Games Reviews will be conducted over Skype with an editor / adjudicator. To maintain anonymity, the external reviewer will be required to wear a glove. To accommodate increasing requests for double-blind peer review, the author selected to take part in the rock–paper–scissors duel can also choose to be gloved, thus masking his or her "identity."

Should the peer-review process result in the authors' Paper being shredded by the reviewer's Scissors (or their Rock wrapped in Paper, or their Scissors blunted by Rock), then a small additional fee allows authors to select our enhanced "Best-of-Three!" peer-review option.

Following this rigorous new review process does not obviate successfully-reviewed authors from paying standard journal processing fees. No one's that lucky.

--

*For an additional $100, authors can choose the more interactive "Bear Ninja Cowboy" package. Costumes cost extra.

Confused? Check the date.

Press Release

(08:00, USA; 13:00, London GMT, For Immediate Release)*

 'Just Like Cooking' to Merge with Nature Publishing Group; New Journal 'Nature Cooking'

Just Like Cooking, a somewhat relevant chemistry blog based in the United States, has agreed in principal to merge with Nature Publishing Group (NPG), London. The union will result in a new publication - Nature Cooking - set to premiere in 2013 with blogger See Arr Oh as Editor.


Said Nature Chemistry Chief Editor, Stuart Cantrill: "We were thinking about ways to grow the brand beyond simple chemistry and biology, and hit upon this idea whilst eating LN2 ice cream at Chin Chin Laboratorists. See Arr Oh brings a wealth of kitchen-based knowledge, and we'll try for a real 'molecular gastronomy' flavour with this journal." Added Associate Editor Neil Withers: "Quite so."


Editorial staff will be selected from the finest food scientists and celebrity chefs (Pépin, Lagasse, and Morimoto have already signed on), and each issue will feature a fold-out pictorial of the Editorial staff dining at fine Michelin restaurants. Initial issues will explore the finer intricacies of British cuisine, including GC headspace analysis of haggis, density checks for Cornish pasty manufacture, and isolation of potent anti-cancer molecules from Christmas puddings.

Potential Nature Cooking dress code

Reaction around the blogosphere has been decidedly mixed. C&EN Associate Editor Carmen Drahl fought back tears, saying "We were about to rename Newscripts to Foodscripts, just to get See Arr Oh to stay." Bloggers Paul Docherty and B.R.S.M. both applauded the move, while Chemjobber lamented the loss: "I'm not happy, as this reduces chemical employment stateside, but if he sends me back some jammie dodgers and a Doctor Who poster, we'll call it even."


*Please see here for more information.