CCL: ChemPhysChem: warning

 Sent to CCL by: "Demetra  Dimetrodon" [dpfiz]=[hotmail.com]
 We've come to the conclusion therefore that
  two months is not long to wait for an article to be returned back
 to the author without being reviewed, and where the author was not
 informed of any difficulty in getting reviewers so that they could back out
 earlier.
 Strange that the journal it was subsequently sent to, in exactly the same form,
 with the same referee
 suggestions, had absolutely no trouble finding reviewers fairly quickly. Nor the
 one beforehand, in which one reviewer made excessive demands, but that's a
 different story.
 I am not implying that full-time editors are corrupt in any way. I just said
 that it could be harder to hold them accountable to the scientific community.
 This
 is just an opinion. There is another side I'm sure, such as that they are more
 devoted to their job.
 Because in this situation, I suspected that there could be misconduct,
 particularly since the Chairmen of the Editorial Board did not reply to my
 complaint, I decided to air out my concerns in public to see whether others have
 had similar experiences.
 If this is ok with the majority, then I hold my hands up in disbelief.
 DD
 > "Wolfram Koch w.koch:_:gdch.de"  wrote:
 >
 > Sent to CCL by: "Wolfram  Koch" [w.koch[]gdch.de]
 > Dear CCL readers,
 >
 > I am Wolfram Koch and I am the Executive Director the Gesellschaft
 Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh), the German Chemical Society. The GDCh is part of
 ChemPubSoc Europe, the consortium of 16 European chemical societies which
 owns a number of prestigious chemistry journals, including ChemPhysChem. In
 my previous life as a practicing scientist I also happened to be a computational
 chemist. Some of you might remember my book A Chemists Guide to DFT, which
 I wrote with my former co-worker M. Holthausen a number of years ago.
 >
 > The reason why, after many years, I come back to the CCL is the message
 > from last Saturday by "Demetra  Dimetrodon" and the accusations
 she raises
 against the editor-in-chief of our journal ChemPhysChem. Her allegations deeply
 upset me and I feel obliged to set the record straight:
 >
 > First, the article in question was indeed sent out for review, but
 unfortunately
 the reviewers did not respond (I have seen the documentation). Second, the
 behavior of the editor-in-chief was not totally out of line but fully adequate
 and
 finds my approval. Third, the correspondence by the editor was certainly not
 extremely rude and condescending but rather polite and appropriate (but you
 should see the authors letters!). Fourth, it is true that the editor is not an
 active
 scientist anymore but works as a full time editor with the publisher. We use
 this
 model with great success for all our journals, including Angewandte Chemie. I
 strongly reject the imputations that such editors lack the scientific integrity
 needed for this responsible job and that they are likely to be manipulated. This
 is
 outrageous! By the way, all editors-in-chief of our journals, including of
 course
 ChemPhysChems, have to approved by the owner societies and need a proven
 record of a successful scientific career.
 >
 > Let me re-iterate, the co-owners of ChemPhysChem are respected chemical
 societies. Our aim is to produce high-quality journals with which we serve the
 chemical community and fulfill our statutory task of dissemination of research
 findings. The accusations brought up by Demetra  Dimetrodon are simply
 pointless and inappropriate.
 >
 > To conclude, there was definitely nothing sinister behind the decision to
 reject
 the ms. While I understand the frustration of an author whose paper gets
 rejected, this must not lead to personal and fully unjustified accusations
 which,
 to make it even worse, are made public to a greater audience. Such a behavior
 poisons the relationship between the various players in the publication process
 and should not be tolerated by our scientific community.
 >
 > Best regards
 >
 > Wolfram
 >
 > Prof. Dr. Wolfram Koch
 > Geschftsfhrer / Executive Director
 > Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker / German Chemical Society
 > Varrentrappstr. 40-42
 > 60486 Frankfurt am Main
 > Tel.: +49 (0)69 7917 320
 > Fax : +49 (0)69 7917 1320
 > w.koch _ gdch.de
 > www.gdch.de (English: www.gdch.de/home.html)
 >
 >