Date published: 2010/02/04
The BBC says:
Stem cell experts say they believe a small group of scientists is effectively vetoing high quality science from publication in journals. In some cases they say it might be done to deliberately stifle research that is in competition with their own.
It has also emerged that 14 leading stem cell researchers have written an open letter to journal editors in order to highlight their dissatisfaction.
Billions of pounds of public money is spent on funding stem cell research.
The open letter to the major scientific journals claims that "papers that are scientifically flawed or comprise only modest technical increments often attract undue profile. At the same time publication of truly original findings may be delayed or rejected".
This is not just a problem in stem cell research, it's a problem generally in science. The editors for journals like Nature and Science and their favourite reviewers have become powerful gatekeepers for what is deemed to be worthwhile or not worthwhile science. Unfortunately, there is never going to be a perfect solution to this problem, since editors and scientists are humans. And unfortunately this will lead to the situation where some mediocre scientists get permanent jobs and some good ones are lost to science.
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