I found the arguments on the net are going in a very interesting direction.
The original question was on whether journals should set up a policy
to prevent scientists from submitting papers to more than one
journal at a time. However, most of the replies went into the
discussion of the difficulties of the reviewing system or that
the policies are already there and, therefore, should be obeyed.
The difficulties of reviewing system can be solved by hiring more reviewers
and charging more page charges, which is probably the reality
we have to face for maintaining a standard.
The policy itself, on the other hand, is not totally unchallengable.
The reasons for that are already stated in previous postings.
In my opinion, there is no strong reason to insist on that
policy, nor to punish scientists who tried to break that policy.
The unfairness of the current policy to prevent multiple
submission is more obvious when one considers that some journals
do have policies to publish some privileged papers without
the standard reviewing procedure.
Song-Muh Jong
University of Florida
Internet: sjj at icbr.ifas.ufl.edu
BITNET: sjj at ufbiot
