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Comment Re:Will referee? (Score 1) 206

I am mathematician, and I am intending to sign the pledge, and I think most likely I will also omit pledge no. 2). The reason I am hesitant to make 2) a strict rule is the following (not unlikely) scenario:
  • A young scientist (say, with a post-doc position) submits an article to an Elsevier journal.
  • I am a natural choice as referee (i.e. it's easier for me to judge the work than for any other potential referee the editor might think of).

If I refuse to referee the article, the editor may have trouble finding a referee, or the referee may be less qualified. Either will result in a longer delay of the process, and in a more random outcome of the process. Meanwhile, maybe the next job application for the author is only a few months away. My own judgment is that the author preferably shouldn't have sent this article to an Elsevier journal. But I don't feel so strongly about it that I want this to cause him to have one fewer published article on his CV during his next job hunt.
The other scenario where I would accept to referee is the one pointed out by other commenters: I am aware of a problem with the article (does not cite related results/correct result, but one of the proofs is wrong/incorrect results/...) - it would be a disservice to the community not to point this out to the editor. Which is all a referee report is in such a case.

Spam

Submission + - "Spam King" pleads guilty in U.S. federal

Monty writes: As previously reported by Cmdr Taco in February, 2006 (http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/28/14 41229) looks like Adam Vitale finally decided to plead guilty (http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN 1120537620070611) to violation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 in federal court in New York City. Is his cohort Moeller next?

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