With regard to Huw Price 'Reputation Trap' and discussions here about the quality of papers, I want to give attention to an organization named COPE.
More than 5000 scientific journals are members of COPE including Nature (Editor-in-Chief: Sir Philip Campbell).
I wrote to them:
Dear COPE,
Your processes - as far as I could see - are focused on misconduct from the writers, but I have seen that also editors can behave unethical and because you suppose to be a 3rd party auditor of the practice I hope you take my question seriously.
The examples I have come from the area of physics and the science of LENR, aka Cold Fusion. To my knowledge editors still refuse to publish papers about this subject. My question is not about particular examples about refused papers but about the editor process of refuse. An editor must have integrity and look again at new evidence even if refused earlier. Editors should not fall for groupthink of what is possible or not. Solid experiment results should not be refused because current theory says otherwize.
Please direct me to the subprocess and guides for what to expect from the editors.
Yours truly
Mats G Danielsson
I just got an answer from Linda Gough, from the administration of COPE. Following her advice I find this important text:
It [COPE Code of Conduct] also established a mechanism for dealing with complaints against COPE member editors that could not be resolved by the journal’s own complaints procedure.
So: this is a way to go for LENR paper writers, please use it!
Dear Mats,
Thank you for your email to COPE.
We expect all of our member editors to follow the COPE Code of Conduct. If you have a concern about a journal that is a member of COPE, we do have a process for dealing with complaints or concerns. Please see the details of our process on our website http://publicationethics.org/contact-us#complaints
Kind regards
Linda Gough
Administrator
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
www.publicationethics.org
Tel: +44 (0) 1379 854181
Fax +44 (0) 844 443 1087
Registered charity No 1123023
Registered in England and Wales, Company No 6389120
Registered office: COPE, 22 Nelson Close, Harleston, Norfolk IP20 9HL, UK