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.

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

Confused? Check the date.

Fond Farewells

Today marked endings* (of sorts) for two prominent members of the chem-blogging community.

First up, Carmen Drahl - intrepid Chemical and Engineering News reporter - announced she was stepping down:

Folks- I'm leaving @cenmag 1/2/15, to travel and explore. I can't thank you enough for making this gig an adventure. 1/3
— Carmen Drahl (@carmendrahl) December 9, 2014

Just a few hours later, Paul Docherty of Totally Synthetic, arguably the blog that gave rise to post-peer-review in synthetic chemistry, called it quits to focus on a burgeoning informatics career.

I'd like to wish both Carmen and Paul a teary, heartfelt good-bye. After all, they both got me into blogging; see my Haystack and TotSyn guest posts. Moreover, they built the bridge from the Tenderbutton / In the Pipeline / The Chem Blog era into the rich and diverse bloggy landscape we enjoy today (see just a fraction of them, in my blogroll, at right).

Best wishes to both Carmen and Paul as they ride into the Internet sunset.

It's a road, off in the distance. Like a metaphor, or something.

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*But not for me. Sorry, chemblogosphere, you're stuck with the pup for yet another year.