Re: Comments in Journals

From: Arthur Smith <apsmith_at_APS.ORG>
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 18:27:48 -0400

Roger Collins wrote:
> I've been in academia more than 20 years. Over that time it's been my
> impression (and my stats and dataset may be faulty here) that journals
> in numerous fields have cut back on the number of "Comments" to
> articles they publish. This, if correct, has raised two issues in my
> mind:-

-- a fourth reason could be that academics are today less inclined to
prepare publishable comments, critical or otherwise, on their peer's
work, particularly as they're so busy writing their own papers these
days.

Here are some numbers from our journals:
Comments published in Physical Review A-E and ST-AB: Jan-June 2000: 49
                                                     Jan-June 1999: 55
                                                     Jan-Dec 1999: 104
                                                     Jan-Dec 1998: 65
                                                     Jan-Dec 1997: 101
                                                     Jan-Dec 1996: 90
                                                     Jan-Dec 1995: 125
                                                     Jan-Dec 1994: 89
Comments published in PRL: Jan-June 2000: 106
                           Jan-June 1999: 98
                          Jan-Dec 1999: 197
                          Jan-Dec 1998: 237
                          Jan-Dec 1997: 202
                          Jan-Dec 1996: 187
                          Jan-Dec 1995: 223
                          Jan-Dec 1994: 218

There may be a bit of a decline over the past 6 years, but it's hard to
tell that from year to year variations. Certainly nothing dramatic has
happened. I'm afraid I don't have numbers to hand for earlier years.

                        Arthur
Received on Mon Jan 24 2000 - 19:17:43 GMT