Tai-Yin Huang's Blog

Academic Crisis – Judges need to be judged

2011-04-24T21:35:00.000-04:00

Judges are in need of judgments. Recently, my student participated at an undergraduate research symposium. Our project was in the competition. He is a freshman and he just started the project with me a few months ago. I did not expect him to win. However, I do think that he had enough stuff to present and I’d be happy if he just got an honorable mention.

I have noticed that I have always held a higher standard than most people. So for me to think that he had enough stuff to present might be an understatement to others. Nevertheless, he did not even get an honorable mention at all. I found it absurd. My student was disappointed. He being only a freshman was able to tell after viewing other students’ works that his was not too bad, if not the best of all. He could not understand why those projects beat his. I tended to agree with his sentiment. The more I thought about it the more furious I became. Mind you, there are 19 branch campuses in the Penn State University College. Only 4 projects are currently funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and mine is one of them. The student has been working with me on a project that is funded by NSF. None of the other projects presented at the undergraduate research symposium is funded by NSF or NASA or any other federal agency that I am aware of. The results of our work will be ready for publication in top peer-reviewed journals. I won’t comment on the significance of other participants’ works. Suffice to say that ours can be and will be published in a few months. By the way, I am to give an invited talk at an international conference on the same project in a few months. That tells you the caliber and the quality of that project.

So what is wrong with the judges? How in the world can those judges not see the significance of our work? Well, it seems to me that nowadays people are so limited to the knowledge of their own field that they know not a thing about other fields. The other thing is that people should not judge any project when their work is in the competition. Hello, this is called “Conflicts of Interest”. It never ceased to amaze me that the academic people with a Ph.D. fail to grasp that. You do not do things that will compromise academic integrity. Everyone knows it but most people become oblivious when it comes to their own interest.

Anyway, I feel sorry for my student. I thought this would be an honest competition. I was furious that he experienced the ugly side of the academic world. Sorry to vent. But it is a morale issue in academia. More and more academic people have become less honorable in issues related to honors and awards. I feel it is time someone stood up and said something to put a stop to it.

Good Eats – More Greens Please

2011-04-17T15:26:00.000-04:00

I was in Vienna two weeks ago. I loved their pastry among other things. It is a beautiful city. One evening, my colleagues and I sat at a dinner table and we were discussing about food in different countries. Most of them did not find any American food worth mentioning. I actually like American Steak and a hearty salad. With a glass of red wine and a roll or two, I needn’t ask for more to please my taste buds.

One of the things I missed so much when I was outside the United States was a bowl of salad with Oliver oil and Balsamic vinegar. I’ve been to quite a few countries, and surprisingly people outside the US do not eat as much green leaves salad as the Americans. In Taiwan, they don’t have the greens as in the States and the choice of salad dressing is very limited. In Corsica, their salad is in a different context. I remember one time when I was with a colleague in a café for lunch at the Lightning workshop in Corsica in 2008. I was overjoyed when I saw salad on their menu. The menu was in French, but I thought salad should be universal. How different could they be? So I ordered a salad and a sandwich. When the server placed my food on the table, I was both speechless and disappointed. It was a dish of rice with tomatoes and some herbs. “That is not salad.” I blurted it out after my initial silence. Then my colleague, who can speak French, said to me, “It is. It is a rice salad. I thought you knew and I thought that was what you wanted.” Well, I saw the word “ritz”, but I thought it was not the main thing on the plate. So instead of one side dish (which would be the salad) and the main dish, I inadvertently ordered two main dishes. Naturally, the sandwich became my dinner. Essentially, it is very hard to find places that serve good green salads outside the States.

Angels in Life

2010-11-24T16:47:00.000-05:00

I used to be quite fired up when people did me wrong. As I’m getting older, I tend to look at the people and the situations in a more positive way. I think these people who placed an obstacle in my path were angels in disguise in my life. I certainly would not appreciate their effort in making my life difficult at the moment, but I have to admit that it was these people that provided the force in me to make changes, to make me become better, and to grow out of my comfort zone. I’d say they deserve a gold-embellished Thank-you card for making the person that I am today.

Well, ideally I would do so, but in reality I think I would feel more comfortable just wishing the worst for them in my private thoughts. Alas, I’m only human.

Noise, noise, and more noise

2009-12-28T20:43:00.002-05:00

I was awakened this morning around 6:30 AM by constant blasts of sounds from a loud speaker. I live close to a middle school about 5 min away from it. I have found that they still ask students to gather in the open field in early mornings in Taiwan and listen to what the school administration has to say. That would be fine with me, except that their sounds are really loud and become a constant noise to me. The noise does not always stop there. I went to my office early this morning since I could not get back to sleep any more. I was just about to get settled, ie, ready to work. There it goes again. The sound of construction. Unbelievable! Since I came to my host institution this September, there were not many days that were quiet. There has been construction going on, and on, and on….

What is funny is that the construction workers use loud speakers to communicate with each other. Oftentimes, I can hear they joke about something. It is ridiculous. Mind you, we are in a building where students attend their classes, and it is not just my building that is affected but also the nearby buildings too where classes are going on. I can’t believe the university would let the construction go on during the semesters. A student told me that he can’t hear very clearly what the professor says when the workers are working. Even so, this thing goes on and on and on….I guess people in Taiwan have a high level of tolerance. I have an urge to complain, but since I am just a visiting professor here and I already have complained about something else to the president of the university that I think I would learn to adopt the attitude of tolerance for a change, and hopefully the construction work will end soon. How soon? ASAP!! Speaking of complaining to higher-ups, it is very effective. After I complained, the things I complained about were dealt with promptly. Why can’t things be handled this way before people complain?

To be or not to be a scientist

2009-11-03T03:45:00.000-05:00

After being in the business (ie, conducting scientific research) for long enough time, I started to think maybe I should do something else. I have had the thought since 2007. It all started from experiencing a hard time to get my ideas accepted by my peers. I wouldn’t give a damn (pardon my language) if my ideas got accepted or not if it weren’t for the fact that our career status critically depends on the number of publications and grants. It has become increasing annoying to see crappy papers get published while I have to work extra hard to get my ideas/work accepted published. It is also getting annoying that I have to educate my peers on some of the subjects that they should be familiar with. It is even annoying to find errors in the publications, and I have to ask myself why reviewers did not pick them up on these mistakes. Some mistakes are very obvious. I used to write short papers and tried to be succinct, but have been forced to elaborate on things that I thought my peers would surely know.

Now I just think the whole peer review process is nothing more than a joke. The journal ranking is also laughable. I think I should do something other than science. Doing scientific research is hard but supposedly fun as well. Now I just feel a bit sick of the mentality of the scientific community. Scientists are merely a bunch of close-minded people with a subjective view and they think their views are always in the right. Most of them don’t even dare to think outside the box. Scientists are supposed to be open-minded with an objective view. I’m simply disappointed in my peers and wonder if I should do something else that is easier to get satisfaction.

My New Year’s Eve – The Celebrity Style

2009-02-05T20:23:00.008-05:00

These are a few pictures of fireworks taken from a mansion at the New Year’s Eve. The mansion is on top of a mountain (I think), thus providing a vintage view of the Taipei city. The tall building in the pictures is Taipei 101 building, the second tallest building on Earth (as I understand).

We were invited to attend the New Year’s Eve party hosted by the owner of the mansion. We arrived around 8 PM, and didn’t get back home until 5:30 AM the next day. I don’t recall ever being staying up so late in recent years. When we arrived, the tall gated doors were wide open. At that moment, I felt I was in a movie. Here I was in a mansion that you only see in movies. The furniture in the mansion was the French court style, very delicate, expansive, and fancy looking.

That was quite a night, eating great food (lobsters, oysters, choice meats) prepared by a restaurant chef, watching fireworks in the courtyard of a mansion on top of a mountain, surrounded by like-minded people. We had BBQ (the Chinese style, no BBQ sauce) in the rather chilly weather. It was fun, especially when I didn’t have to do the work. There were some other guests coming and going. The fireworks started at 12:00 AM exact on Jan. 1 2009, and it lasted about 180 seconds, I was told. After watching the fireworks, we went back into the mansion and stayed until close to 5 AM.

We were invited to attend a traditional lunar year-end banquet by a company’s president who was at the New Year’s Eve party and is good friends with the mansion owner. It was nice. We were sitting close to the stage. We won the 3rd prize raffle. We went up to the stage with other winners to have a picture taken. We were invited to watch the live recording of a few shows hosted by the mansion owner. It was fun. I had a good time in Taiwan. I worked during the daytime and enjoyed these activities after the working hours. My winter break ended with a flight on Business back to the States. There were too many people on Economy so I was bumped up to Business. I was praying to be bumped to Business, and my wish was answered. ;-)

Utilizing Lightning Energy

2008-12-29T03:26:00.002-05:00

Watch the demo of how lightning energy can be stored and utilized to power an LED light on my Youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/profhuang) or click on the video below.

Chris Alright (a former student of mine) and I designed a model in 2006 that demonstrated the utilization of lightning energy from atmospheric lightning discharges. The equipment consists of an electrostatic charge generator and a metal house on a piece of pilewood. Inside the model house, there is a simple RC circuit with an LED indicator and a switch. The essential ideas of this model are that we can use a capacitor to store charge collected from air discharges and the charge can be used to power an LED when enough charge has been collected.

Chris had moved on to University Park when we videotaped the demonstration. I asked my teaching assistants (Pietro Iadevaia and Robert Thacker-Dey) to help me to do the demonstration. Our Digital Commons specialist videotaped and edited the film for us.

Chris Alright took physics with me in 2006 and asked to do an Honors project for the “Electricity and Magnetism” course. Since I just got into the field of lightning research, I thought it would be great if his project had something to do with lightning. We discussed what his project would be – something to do with lightning discharges. Initially, I wanted to use a magnetic field sensor in the physics lab to measure the change in the magnetic field during lightning discharge. The Van Der Graaf generator would be used to produce electrostatic charge that would discharge through air. It was to simulate lightning discharge, and the magnetic field sensor would be used to measure the magnetic field. It did not work. The laptop that the sensor was connected to froze every single time when the lightning discharge occurred. After two weeks of trials, we gave up. It was obvious that we needed to come up with a different project. So I sent him to do some research to find projects that would be feasible.

He came back with an idea of building a Faraday Cage to demonstrate how it could protect a house. I told him it was a great idea, but how about doing a little bit extra? How about building something that could use the lightning energy when the Faraday Cage is not used? So we discussed how we could accomplish that. I told him what I thought would be required for the project. We needed a model house that is conductive, a device that can store the charge collected, and an optical device that uses the stored energy from lightning discharge. After discussions, we decided that a model house made of aluminum, a capacitor to store the charge, a couple of resistors, and an LED indicator would be required. He came back after a few weeks with the model house and a Faraday cage made of copper wires. That is a great thing to have a bright student to work for you. You tell them what you want, give them stuff, and they come back with a finished product. That is simply fantastic.

When I asked him to construct the model house, I had no idea if it would work, that is, if it would be possible to collect charges from the discharges and store them on a capacitor. If you searched for topics on utilizing lightning energy, you would find quite a few articles that say it is not practical to utilize lightning energy. Perhaps that is true, but I think I wanted to show that lightning energy can be utilized if we want to. During the demonstration, we turned the Van Der Graff generator on. When the charge on the generator was large enough, it would discharge through air. The metal house was positioned to be near the generator. After a couple of minutes of discharge, we would have collected enough charge to power the LED. It was quite exciting to see the LED light lit up when we pressed the button of the switch. We proved it that lightning energy can be stored and utilized. Of course the laboratory lightning discharge is very much smaller than the lightning discharge in nature. Image if we had the device to harvest the lightning energy from nature! Anyway, the important concept of this demo is that it can be done.

My article on peer review

2008-12-04T21:38:00.002-05:00

My article on peer review in the December issue of Physics Today can be viewed here http://ptonline.aip.org/journals/doc/PHTOAD-ft/vol_61/iss_12/14_1.shtml. The location of the PDF file is at http://link.aip.org/link/PHTOAD/v61/i12/p14/s1/pdf

I submitted my article last May. Several months had passed, and I did not hear anything from them so I thought maybe they were not interested in running the article. Then another incident prompted me to add more to the original text. I was thinking of ways to get it published. Someone suggested to me that I can publish it on a blog. I thought that was a good idea, so I followed the advice. After I created a blog and posted my article, I got an email from the editor saying that they would run my article with some modifications. They cut out quite a few things that I wanted to be heard. Nevertheless, I am happy that they would publish my article, and I hope it will make a positive change in the peer review process.

The original text of my article submitted to Physics Today is from the first half of the article on my blog (http://taiyin.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-game-rules-for-paper-review.html). You can see the original here and the finish product via the link provided in the first paragraph.

Introducing My Youtube Channel

2008-10-25T11:00:00.004-04:00

It’s interesting that nowadays people can publish themselves in various creative ways online: showing their videos on Youtube, publishing articles on blogs, just to name a few.

After being encouraged by people, I have joined the millions that enjoy a Youtube account. I have uploaded the first part of my interview on my Youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/profhuang). The video is named “A day with Professor Huang – Part 1.” The other two parts will be uploaded soon after some editing.

The interview was a student project for the students enrolled in the English Technical Writing course in spring 2008. I chaired the Research and Scholarship Committee and thought this could be a very educational and interesting project for the students. So I talked to the instructor to see if she could incorporate the faculty interview project into the course curriculum as part of the student assignments. She kindly integrated that in her class. The students utilized the equipment in Digital Commons to videotape and edit the interviews with the technical assistance from the instructional services specialist in Digital Commons. Altogether, there were eight faculty members participating in this project. There is a credit page at the end of the interview, so those who were involved in the project get proper credit for their efforts.

My interview was filmed in February. I hadn’t had enough time to shake off the extra pounds I gained from my trip to Taiwan. The cover photo was taken in chilly weather, so I looked a bit funny in that photo. All in all, it was fun to be interviewed and filmed by the students. I had thought I would feel uneasy in front of the camera, but it turned out to be good. I felt rather relaxed and comfortable with it and the interviewers, probably because two of them were my students. So no pressure there!

Here is the second part of the interview by students.

Part 1 was done by Chris Lai, part 2 by Chris Albright, and the last parts by Martin Hekmati.

Here are the third and the last part of the interview.

The Secret To My Time Management

2008-10-12T16:40:00.000-04:00

Nowadays it seems everybody has a lot on his plate. It is not just adults that are super busy and forget things. In recent years I have noticed that an increasing number of students have become quite forgetful about deadlines, assignments, or appointments. Are people really really that busy that they tend to forget about things? I too have a lot on my plate, but so far I have been able to finish things ahead of time most of the time. So the core of their problem for failing to beat the deadlines is probably that they need an efficient method to keep a record and keep track of their tasks. I think it is a matter of time management and the matter of know-how.

When I first became a faculty member, life was hectic. I had meetings to go to, papers or meeting abstracts to submit before deadlines, student appointments, and etc. It was very difficult to remember each and every one of the things. The 3M post-it notes were good, but they were scattered everywhere on my desk or computer screen. I didn’t like it. I bought a pocket-size two-year monthly planner, and I found it very useful. I wrote deadlines or appointments in my planner. But that was not enough, because the planner was small that I could not write every single task in it. So in addition to a planner, I started writing down a to-do list on a personalized notepad, one page at a time. Ever since then, I managed to keep track of things.

The size of the notepad is 5.5’’x8.5’’. I write down the things I need to do on the page when I still remember them, and I cross them out when I finish the tasks. Normally I would run out of the space on both sides every two or three weeks. This is simple and efficient, but to my surprise, most of the people do not do that. The planner and the to-do list have helped me keep track of everything and enabled me to finish things ahead of time. It has been working very well for me, and that’s more it gives me a sense of accomplishments when I see the items crossed out on my to-do list. It is a successful time management mechanism for me.

Hunting for Sprites

2008-09-24T18:49:00.005-04:00

Here are the two incidents of sprites that I captured last Friday (Sept. 19).

I had never thought I could observe sprites at home in front of a computer! The Danish National space Institute installed two camera observing systems at two locations – one on Pic Du Midi in Pyrenees and one on Monte Corona in Corsica. The camera systems can be operated remotely as long as there is a computer and internet connection, and they are controlled via the Danish National Space Institute. The Institute hosts a site where people can view real time images and maps of thunderstorm locations from a satellite. I signed up to be part of a group of interested scientists who would like to participate in the 2008 EuroSprite Observational campaign.

My first observation period started on Monday September 15 through Sunday September 22. In the first two days of my observations, there were not many lightning activities. On the 3rd day (Wednesday), there was a huge thunderstorm system. I spent a few hours on my laptop, following the lightning activity and pointing the cameras to where positive lightning occurred. On Thursday, I accidentally looked at a page in the EuroSprite manual and noticed that I forgot to key in an important command that would be needed to trigger images. I felt like a goof. It is like sitting behind the wheel stepping on gas and thought I was driving while the engine was not even turned on. Thursday was not good for hunting because the cameras on Pic Du Midi were not cooperating and the cameras on Monte Corona were too far away from the thunderstorm. Friday was the only good day for sprite hunting. It was exhilarating to see the sprites that I captured though I was exhausted after hours in front of my laptop. So during the whole week, I only captured two incidents of sprites with the cameras on Monte Corona.

Though the pictures were not close-up shots (I’m a new user so I still have lots to learn how to get a better shot), I’m pleased to have at least captured something. It was fun and interesting. This could be a great project for my students!

LITEs

2008-09-10T09:53:00.008-04:00

Below is an extract from the article “On the Lightning Induced Transient Emissions in the OH Airglow Layer Observed by ISUAL Instrument Onboard FORMOSAT-II Satellite” by Tai-Yin Huang1, C. Y. Chiang2, C. L. Kuo3, A. B. Chen2, H. T. Su2, and R. R. Hsu2. Click here http://www.lv.psu.edu/tuh4/LITEs. for the full article. For article citation, please use http://taiyin.blogspot.com/2008/09/LITEs

1. Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University Lehigh Valley, Fogelsville, PA 18051, USA
2. Physics Department, Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
3. Institute of Space Science, National Central University, Chung-Li, Taiwan

Abstract

Observations by The Imager of Sprites and Upper Atmospheric Lightning (ISUAL) broadband filter onboard the FORMOSAT-II satellite have sometimes shown a transient brightness in or below the OH airglow layer accompanied by lightning activity. The ISUAL team conducted a nine-day campaign in January 2007 with some of the observations devoted exclusively to capturing lightning-induced transient emissions (LITEs) with a narrowband filter for such investigations. The observations of lightning-induced intensity enhancements in the OH airglow layer with a narrowband filter presented here are the first and only narrowband observations currently in existence. Our analysis of the narrow-band observations shows that there is a significant intensity increase (87.5%) in the OH airglow layer when there is lightning activity and a residual intensity increase (25%) in post lightning activity. Three mechanisms are proposed to explain the airglow enhancements.

This image shows an intensity enhancement in the OH airglow induced by lightning captured by a broadband filter (623-750 nm).

This image shows an intensity enhancement in OH airglow induced by lightning captured by a narrowband filter centered at 630 nm.

We propose three mechanisms to explain the lightning-induced transient emissions (LITEs) in the OH airglow.

ISUAL’s broadband filter has also captured LITEs below the OH airglow layer like the one below.

Memorable Encounters

2008-09-01T08:59:00.002-04:00

I have attended quite a few meetings over the years. Most of the meetings were uneventful except two memorable encounters that stood out in my mind. Below are the two interesting encounters.

The first one occurred during the time I went for a job interview for a postdoctoral position after I finished my job in Canada and was a visiting scientist at University of Cincinnati. As part of the interview, I gave a presentation about some of the work I did. It was about the mesospheric temperature inversion layer at around 85-90 km altitude. The phenomenon of the observed mesospheric temperature inversion layer is that temperature increased 30 to 40 K in a few hours in that altitude range. We proposed that the formation of the inversion layer observed during the ALOHA-93 campaign was due to the gravity wave-critical layer interaction modulated by the descending tidal motion. The mechanism was considered new, and some people had a hard time accepting what we proposed at that time. People who opposed our mechanism preferred tides over gravity waves.

One of the people in the audience preferred tidal explanations. He was a well respected senior scientist in the field of Aeronomy. When I got into the mechanism, he stopped me and asked questions. So I answered the questions with supporting materials that I had prepared. He was not satisfied and asked more questions. I showed more supporting materials and answered that there were data that could not be explained by tides along. Gravity waves had to play an important role in triggering the formation of the temperature inversion layer. We went back and forth with questions and answers. We were like locking horns with each other in the tug-of-war. He insisted that his views were right, while I did not back down and insisted that mine were right as well. The whole debate lasted for quite some time. Finally, the host came to our rescue. He stood up and asked us to discuss it after the presentation. During the whole time while I was defending my views, I cringed inside. The presentation was part of the job interview. It is common sense that people should put on their best behavior and leave a good impression at a time like this. I could have pretended to agree with him just to be amiable, but I couldn’t. I felt that the tidal explanation could not explain the observations with satisfaction and that the gravity wave explanation could do it better.

I flew back to Cincinnati after the interview. When I went to see my thesis advisor, he asked me how the interview went. I relayed the whole thing to him. He smiled (probably because he knew me well, and knew that I would go into debate with people if I thought my views were right) and said the scientist called him the other day to tell him that I did not listen to him (the scientist). Luckily, the host hired me anyway. Our mechanism was getting acceptance. Years later, the scientist wrote a review paper on temperature inversion layers. He very graciously included my work and discussed it in his paper.

Another memorable encounter is not as professional as the previous one. It occurred about two years ago. I attended a meeting and presented a poster on my recent research in the field of lightning. I was new to that field. I got interested in lightning after I attended a NATO-sponsored workshop on lightning and transient luminous events (sprites, elves, etc) in 2004. I wanted to know if lightning could have any effect on the chemical reactions in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. I utilized my background in Aeronomy and did research in Lightning. I did some simulations of OH nightglow emissions in the event of sprites.

During the poster session, I stood in front of my poster. A junior scientist came to look at my poster and then he asked me a few questions. A senior scientist walked toward our direction and stopped at where we were. He didn’t look friendly. I did not know that person. Like I said, I was new to this field, so I don’t think many people in the field of lightning knew about my research background. The senior scientist looked at the junior scientist and asked him questions. At first I thought the senior was asking the junior a question because his face was toward the junior one. But after I heard the question, I thought to myself “He was asking a question about my work! Why didn’t he ask me? Why did he ask a person who was like him, just a viewer of my poster???” The junior one apparently thought the same. He apologetically looked at me and asked me if I could answer the question. So I explained nicely about my work and answered his question. However, the senior rarely looked at me when I was explaining things to him. During my explanation to him, he just looked at the junior without the courteous look toward my direction, and he appeared to be not approving what I said. After I finished, he said something to show that my answer was not reaching his ears. He then said a few more things to the junior that my work was wrong. He seemed to be quite upset about my work or me. I don’t know. Like I said, I did not even know him, and I don’t think he knew me. I don’t know why he should get upset about me or about my work. Come to think of it, here is an interesting observation: People in the field of Aeronomy generally said nice things to me about this work, while people in Lightning tended to trash it.

Anyway, the whole scenario prolonged for some time. It was actually a very funny situation. The three of us stood there forming an equal lateral triangle. The senior looked and talked only to the junior. The junior looked rather uncomfortable in his position, and shifted his gaze between me and the senior. I was feeling upset inside but tried to maintain civil. I have never encountered people this rude and this unprofessional at professional gatherings. If he has any questions about my work, he should just ask me directly. But no, instead, he treated me as if I was not there. I don’t know why he acted that way, but that kind of behavior was really uncalled for, nor was it justified. No one should take this kind of attitude from anybody even if he is someone like Einstein, and to be honest he is nowhere near Einstein. The only reason that I did not give him a piece of my mind at that time was out of the respect for his seniority in his age. Come to think of it, I really should stop him and tell him that we need to discuss his attitude before we discuss my work. Further, even if my work was wrong, which it is not, he could have discussed it with me with a more civil, professional attitude. To be honest, his action is simply beyond my comprehension. At the next meeting, he walked past by a few times, but he did not stop by my poster. I guess during our previous encounter I was sending out the message that I am not someone who can be easily intimidated or harassed. It is wise of him to stay away from me. The whole thing was really hilarious and absurd. I hope that person can realize that too.

Here is another interesting observation. Most scientists tend to think their views are right. If someone holds a different view from theirs, that person must be in the wrong because they feel and think that they are always right therefore that person must be wrong. It seems that the more senior you are the more adamant you become in believing you cannot be no wrong. I admit, I am one of them. Well, at least, I’ve recognized my flaw and will always remind myself to be critical and yet open-minded. One thing is for sure, I certainly won’t treat people bad simply because we hold different views!

New game rules for paper review?

2008-08-11T00:56:00.005-04:00

I think it is time to call for a re-examination of the review procedures commonly used in the scientific community and come up with a new set of game rules. Given that publications play an important role in the making or breaking of a person’s academic career, I think a new set of game rules should be adopted to be fair to everyone. Over the years, I have come across various kinds of reviews, just like everyone else who has stayed in science long enough. There were reasonable reviews. There were horrible reviews. There were personal attacks blatantly embedded in the mediocre reviews. Who knows? Maybe the reviewer just had a bad day. Nevertheless, I think we should all start to be responsible for what we say.

I propose that all reviews and the names of the reviewers should be made public after a paper has been accepted or rejected. Supposedly, reviewers are experts whose critiques the editors can reply on. However, such is not always the case. We see good quality papers, but oftentimes we also see some awful papers in the journals. I often wonder how those papers can be published. The original intention of an anonymous review system was good. Unfortunately, I think it has been abused and misused. I think it is time that reviewers should stop hiding behind the anonymous umbrella and stand behind their words by revealing their identity and their reviews. If the reviews and the identity of the reviewers are made public, I’m sure everyone will be cautious about what they write because their reviews will be “reviewed” by the whole scientific community. That way, we will definitely see the improvement of the reviews, and consequently the improvement of the paper itself. Not only that, we will see less of erroneous reviews passed on authoritatively by the reviewers to the editor. Further, I am pretty sure we won’t see any personal attacks that shouldn’t even be there in the first place. Reviewers will focus more on the science content of the paper and not use the review as an outlet for his/her personal feelings.

Do we have the resources to do that? With online journals making headway, I think it won’t take much to include the paper and the reviews next to it, regardless of whether the paper is accepted or rejected. That way, we can witness how the paper was reviewed, and if the reviewers did their job properly and appropriately. We can also go a step further if the journals allow readers to post their views on the paper or the reviews of the paper. I would also urge that the funding agencies adopt the same game rules so that everything is out in the open to ensure that the review process can be fair.

Below are the summaries of my suggestions to the Editorial Boards of scientific journals. I hope that the Editorial Boards would take them into considerations when the editors and the scientific community are ready to re-examine the current review practice. I am certain that I speak for a substantial group of people who share my views.

I hope that in the future reviews and author’s responses can be visible to the journal readers. Instead of these being handled in a black box, I hope that the review process can be transparent by making them visible. I think they are equally important as the paper itself that they really deserved to be viewed as well. With things moving toward publishing electronically, I think it is viable to do so.
Revealing reviewers’ identities should be implemented. It should not be optional. If everything is done objectively and professionally, I don’t think reviewers should feel any resistance in standing behind what they state in their reviews by revealing their names. I think this will be a very positive change. This will work even better if Suggestion 1 is adopted as well. Oftentimes, we know who reviewed the paper only because they gave favorable reviews. If it is the science content that the reviewers review, they should not be afraid to stand behind their words whether the review is favorable or not.
Reviewers’ views are not always correct. I have come across with a few reviews over the years that exposed the inadequate expertise of the reviewers. The current review practice does not always allow reviewers to learn about author’s feedback on their reviews. As a result, the reviewers continue to hold the inaccurate views and will reject the paper based on the same inaccurate beliefs next time.
Lastly, papers that are not in the direction of main stream or are controversial will often not see the light of a day. This I have no solution to suggest, but still would like to bring that to the editors’ attention. This is a much debated topic in Letters of Physics Today. It seems that it occurs in every field of science, and no one has come up with a solution to resolve that. But I think if the aforementioned suggestions were adopted, such things would have been minimized greatly.