In the spirit of Tim’s last post about rapid publication and review, I found a link to a journal, Environmental Microbiology, that publishes some of their favourite referee comments. Below is a smattering of some of the more humorous ones. The link is here for those of you wanting to read all of the 2010 posted comments.
Done! Difficult task, I don’t wish to think about constipation and faecal flora during my holidays! But, once a referee, always and anywhere a referee; we are good boy scouts in the research wilderness. Even under the sun and near a wonderful beach.
This paper is desperate. Please reject it completely and then block the author’s email ID so they can’t use the online system in future.
It is sad to see so much enthusiasm and effort go into analyzing a dataset that is just not big enough.
The biggest problem with this manuscript, which has nearly sucked the will to live out of me, is the terrible writing style.
Reject – More holes than my grandad’s string vest!
The writing and data presentation are so bad that I had to leave work and go home early and then spend time to wonder what life is about.