h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In defense of the new Peer Review scheme, it should be said - no doubt it already has been somewhere - that a great deal of time has been wasted dealing with submissions that clearly have no place in a Editor's in-tray. I'm referring to the countless repetitions of "42", Entries with no text at all (more times than you'd think), and textual belches. In short, a lot of the stuff that we have had to sift through is simply a waste of time and effort. There are a number of Researchers who have nothing to say, but feel compelled to say it anyway; which is a shame, because whatever rubbish they submit has been placed in the same pile as the the gems that eventually do make it to the front page. On the other hand, there are very many Entries that have been written and submitted in good faith, which, in one way or another, fall short of the mark and are rejected. The new way of doing business, as I see it, goes some way to solve these problems by removing time-wasters from the loop, and giving those Researchers who are genuinely concerned with writing something of interest a last chance to fine tune their work before it is edited; thus improving their chance of acceptance and reducing the workload of the Sub-Editors. As for the concerns about politics and favouritism... well, ultimately the final decision still rests with the people who have been producing the Guide all along; and, I think you'll agree, they have so far shown themselves to be fair. In any event, the Peer Review page is accessible to everyone; so we can all watch out for each other. Hurray!

JTG