本人在美国光学会旗下的Optics Letters总共发表过十几篇文章。从去年开始,我们先后两篇投到该期刊的文章都落到了一个意大利籍Topical Editor(TE)手里,此人名叫G. Assanto。此人的学术道德让人震惊不已。 我们的第一篇文章,该编辑找了两个审稿人。两份审稿意见十分正面,都明确支持在Optics Letters发表。结果该编辑自己捉刀,删掉了两份审稿意见中所有正面的评价,替换成负面的词语,从而给通讯作者写信说:基于这两份审稿意见,我很遗憾不能接受你的文章的发表。 有人会问:你怎么知道该编辑篡改审稿意见了呢?很简单,Optics Letters的稿件系统在给通讯作者发送审稿意见的同时,系统会自动给其它共同作者发送审稿意见。该编辑篡改的是发送给通讯作者的审稿意见,而他愚蠢到不知道系统同时给其它作者发出了一份原始的审稿意见。我们把这两份意见一比较,就知道他的篡改了(原始审稿意见和篡改后的审稿意见见本文附件的第一部分)。 怀着十分惊愕的心情,我们立刻给Optics Letters的staff写信,告知这个编辑的篡改行为。结果该staff回信说,“误会误会!该TE本来是要接受你们的文章的,但他的鼠标不小心点到了“拒绝”按钮,所以才有了这样的误会”。我指出他的篡改行为,对方竟然说编辑有权利修改审稿意见! 我们十分生气,但当初还是只要求对方以后不要把我们的稿件送到该编辑手里。 最近,我们又投了一篇稿件到Optics Letters,很不幸又落到该TE手里。这次还是找了两个审稿人。让我们十分震惊的是,该编辑又开始篡改审稿意见了:他直接把正面报告中的“支持文章在Optics Letters发表”的语句全部删除了,然后就拒了我们的稿件(原始审稿意见和篡改后的审稿意见见本文附件的第二部分)。 基于该编辑的这种嗜好,我们忍无可忍,不得不给Optics Letters的主编写了封信,报告了该TE的行为。主编查看了我们提供的原始和篡改后的审稿意见,然后他自己在网上系统里面也证实了该TE的篡改行为(见下面该主编的回信)。但很遗憾,到目前为止,主编没有任何处理意见,甚至于还懒得给我们发一份原始的审稿意见。主编最近的一次email回复和我们的要求见于下。 又及:我把这个事情给我的国外同事讲了讲,他十分诧异,他告诉我说这个TE对他非常helpful:即使两份意见都不支持,这个TE也接受他的文章发表!天哪!这样还有审稿的必要吗?! ---------------------------我最近一次给主编写的信---------------------------------------------------------- Dear Editor, Thank you for taking time to review the reports. To be honest, I do not think that we are the only Assanto's victims. Also, the real victims are not our authors, but OSA and OL: tampering with referee reports is a serious academic misconducts, which insults not only OSA authors, but also OSA reviewers. If a proper action is not taken promptly, his actions may disgrace our beloved OL and the whole editorial board. Needless to say that, he has already disqualified himself as a TE in such a respectful journal. I therefore look forward to a fair and public announcentment on this issue after a through investigation, in order to help OL develop more successfully and respectedly under your leadship. Thank you, Highest regards, Fangwei ----------------------主编最近一次给我写的信----------------------------------- Dear Fangwei: I compared the comments in two versions, also confirmed them from the on-line system. I understand your frustration now. In the future, I will think about a better for the reviewers to provide their recommendation as reject or accept. We have “the message to the editor,” and “the message to the author”. However, most of reviewers did not use both session. I will get feedback from my Deputy Editor, Brian Justus, and find a way to fix it. Best regards, EIC Orignal and tampered referee reports.pdf ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------