Lancet - editorial - 'a proper place for retraction'.

[Barry53]

But how do you do that when they won't listen to one side for fear of being 'influenced'?

So how does the culture and procedures work for a publication like the Lancet? Are certain members of staff excluded from reading articles and correspondence etc? Genuine questions, not accusatory.

 

[Lucibee]

So how does the culture and procedures work for a publication like the Lancet? Are certain members of staff excluded from reading articles and correspondence etc? Genuine questions, not accusatory.

Not excluded, as such, but due to the sheer volume of material The Lancet receives, editors are assigned to certain areas of interest. As a former correspondence copyeditor (ie, fairly junior), I would only ever see letters that had been accepted - but never thought to ask to see what had been rejected. Generally, you are not reading for content anyway at that stage. But it did strike me that it was quite rare for authors to adequately address the criticisms their papers received - which is why I think addressing flaws through journal correspondence sections is relatively ineffective.

 

[Lucibee]

Aaaannnnnd.... I've been embargoed until 20 Sept.
Well, that was predictable!

 

[Lucibee]

So.... I appealed (because their Journal Publishing Agreement is extremely unclear and frankly contradictory), and I have been "allowed" to put the accepted version on my blog. So I'll update this post when I've done that.

I've now done that: https://lucibee.wordpress.com/2017/08/27/a-case-for-retraction/

Please can I request that you don't share or quote further at least until published. Thanks!