Tech Hammer

For Lucy Rowan, spilling a cup of coffee was just a simple way to vent her emotions. After spilling the cup of coffee, her pent-up and angry emotions were much less curious about March's identity.

But for many editors of mathematics journals, what they experienced in the previous twenty-four hours was a novel experience that they had never experienced before.

After all, the three deputy editors, who respectively represent three extremely high-quality journals in the mathematics world, did not lie. If the manuscripts submitted for review in March were indeed responded to very quickly, they even gave the deputy editors of other journals a taste of what rocket speed is. .

I sent an invitation review email at work and received a reply within two minutes. I also received an review completion email before lunch.

To be honest, this speed is even faster than the rejection speed of many academic experts in the industry. Coupled with his rigorous review opinions, even some minor errors are listed one by one, which makes many deputy editors who are trying to review the manuscript in March feel elated.

You must know that reviewers for mathematics journals are not easy to find.

After all, review is a voluntary job. For many academic researchers, taking their own time off to review peer papers is entirely accepted by many researchers out of academic responsibilities.

Of course, some people can learn about some new ideas in this field through review, and it can provide guidance for their current projects. But this is often a matter of luck. In this era, the quality of papers varies greatly, and truly excellent papers are actually rare. Even top journals are not immune to this, and many of their papers are extremely correct nonsense.

If the direction of the paper is more accessible to the general public, such as a paper on the correlation between Mersenne prime numbers, it will be easier to find reviewers if there are more people studying it.

If it is a relatively partial research field, it is really difficult to find reviewers. In some subdivided fields of mathematics, there may only be a few people in the world researching it. If reviewers cannot be found, the journal will even Reject the manuscript directly. Anyway, this unpopular field cannot contribute much impact factor.

But no matter which field, the review speed of reviewers is a flaw. It is normal for a general paper to be reviewed for one or two months. If it is a larger result, it is normal for it to be reviewed for one or two years. Therefore, in recent years, if the editor-in-chief and deputy editor-in-chief of some journals feel that the quality and value of the paper are extremely high, they will simply bypass the review mechanism and directly put forward some minor revision suggestions, or even directly publish it in the journal.

After all, for the practitioners of these journals, if they want to maintain the operation of the journal, they naturally hope that their manuscripts can be reviewed as soon as possible. After all, most journals can charge a page fee from the author after confirming the publication of the paper. If colleagues want to study and download high-quality manuscripts, they will also have to pay a large fee. Who would have trouble with the money? To do academic work, you also need to eat.

So what makes these editors feel most happy in March is that it is extremely fast and does not seem to be picky, and it can also give review opinions that at least seem to be reliable. Of course, there are also shortcomings, which is probably what the review opinions given by it say. It can be called sharp if it sounds nice, or it can be called unscrupulous cynicism if it is truer.

Even a manuscript that passes the review can make everyone from the editor to the author feel uncomfortable.

For example, the evaluation given by Ning Wei in March for the paper he had read personally was that "there are no obvious errors, and there is also no obvious value. A manuscript that is unlikely to be cited more than ten times in the future is almost worthy of being ranked as a low-ranking manuscript." District 2 Journal, so pass.”

Really, when the deputy editor in charge of this article saw the approved review, he almost wanted to use his power to kill the article directly. After all, it is also one of the top 40 mathematics journals in the world in terms of impact factor. Why should it suffer such humiliation?

As for those manuscripts whose papers were directly rejected, you can imagine how venomous March can be. For example, for a certain paper, the review comments in March directly gave this suggestion: "This kind of paper may be brewed by monkeys for another hundred years of evolution. The author has the nerve to choose to support your journal. As a journal editor, don't you Shouldn’t you reflect on what you have done during your working hours in recent years?”

After reading this kind of reviewer feedback, whether it is the author or the editor, do you feel angry? Are you angry or not? !

In March, it became popular in the editorial circle of mathematics journals. Although these comments have not leaked out for the time being, they have begun to spread within the circle. The editor-in-chief and deputy editor-in-chief with integrity will directly question their colleagues in the circle. Seeing this If there is no review opinion, will you still send her the manuscript for review? Anyway, we will never do it again. No matter how high the mathematical level is, we cannot tolerate such unscrupulous reviewers.

Of course, after making such a righteous comment, it used to be a basic operation to send the backlog of manuscripts to the March mailbox announced by colleagues.

A reviewer who is both quick and serious enough to review is absolutely rare for the editors-in-chief and deputy editors-in-chief of these journals. Being criticized sharply makes me feel uncomfortable at most. Compared with the discomfort in my pocket, the grievance in my heart is nothing.

After all, the world is inherently imperfect, and it just needs to be more beneficial to each other.

Of course, for editors of top journals, this aspect is less troublesome, but in addition to the four top journals in this world, there are still many journals that have to survive. The reputation of these journals is not that great, so March naturally becomes a popular month.

This group of editors is both sad and happy, but for mathematics professors all over the world, the comments in March are not so happy, and can even be said to be humiliating. No matter who it is, if the paper you worked so hard to write is evaluated as if you wrote a bunch of rubbish, your mood will definitely not be very beautiful.

Sethibama University is a private university in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Perhaps the most glorious achievement in its history is the launch of a Satyabhama experimental satellite into the sky. It may not be well-known in the world, but it is ranked among the top fifty universities in India.

Professor Mangappa from the School of Science had just finished his class. When he returned to his office and turned on his computer, he received a notification of new emails in his mailbox. Manjappa opened his mailbox in a good mood, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the paper he sent to the "Journal of Geometric Analysis" finally received a formal reply.

He has submitted this paper for probably more than a month. He checked it in the past two weeks and it was still in the stage of looking for reviewers. Calculating the response at this time, there is a high probability that the paper has been passed or needs minor revisions.

After all, Mangapa is very confident in the quality of the paper. He has been studying hyperbolic geometry for about six years. It took him nearly half a year to write "The Schottky–Klein prime function and counting functions for Fenchel double crosses" Time can be said to be a summary of his six years, so he naturally has high expectations.

The comments given by the two previous reviewers were suggestions for revision, but when he saw the reply from the third reviewer, he suddenly felt dizzy and felt his blood pressure soar.

Is this really a mockery that the paper he wrote is not as good as the paper written by a monkey who learned mathematics?

Not only that, several of the theorem proving processes that he was quite proud of were scolded by the reviewer for not knowing the so-called proof system. What was even more annoying was that he listed a bunch of messy formulas in his paper, and finally gave it to make a decision not to pass.

Not in the mood to read the reviewers' feedback at all, Mangappa immediately clicked the reply button on his email and sent a fierce reply to the reply email of the Journal of Geometric Analysis.

"I can't believe the reply I just saw. I hope you can understand that the reviewers you selected are deliberately insulting the mathematicians in third world countries. This is ***ism in academia. I demand that Get a reasonable explanation. If there is no reasonable explanation, I will retain the evidence and call on everyone to boycott your magazine, or even initiate an international lawsuit against you!"

After writing this, Manjappa angrily clicked the send button. What he didn’t know was that he was definitely not the first mathematician to receive such a mean reply, but he was the first mathematics professor to directly threaten the magazine.

He didn't even know that his reply email was received by the editor of the journal immediately, and then without hesitation sent a screenshot to the newly established communication group, and attached a comment: "Look, I knew it, Oh my God, this professor wants to sue us, so can we also sue that March to restore the reputation of the magazine. After all, we are not monkeys either!"

The group suddenly became lively.

"Guy, I don't think it's necessary to go to so much trouble. Or you can just tell the furious Professor Mangapa who reviewed this manuscript. Maybe this will make him accept the suggestions calmly."

"Haha, this is indeed an interesting thing if you think about it carefully."

"I bet a hundred dollars that the name March will soon be famous in the world of mathematics. But this guy will definitely not dare to attend any mathematics conference. Even if the World Congress of Mathematicians sends an invitation letter to this guy, he will definitely not Dare to be there because no one dares to guarantee his safety.”

"It's not him, it should be her. The exact information was verified by the first batch of editors who received Ning Wei's recommendation letter. Ning Wei used her in the letter at that time!"

"Ha, so it's possible that this poisonous mathematician is a beauty?"

"No, no, no, it could be a chubby aunt!"

…

Thousands of miles away, when Yue Yue's reputation was gradually beginning to spread in the mathematics circle, Jiang Chenshuang was nervously standing in the corridor of his dormitory, answering the call from his sister.

"It's Thursday, how can you call? Is there something wrong?"

"Sister, it's okay. Lao Gao gave me the phone specifically to ask you something."

Lao Gao is her sister's class teacher.

Even though she entered Yanbei University through the special admissions program for poor areas, Jiang Chenshuang is still a celebrity in her hometown, and the teachers at her alma mater naturally know her. You must know that this kind of special program is not as simple as lowering your college entrance examination scores. After passing the preliminary review, you have to go to the school for a written test, interview and physical screening, and then you will be admitted from high to low based on your overall score.

Not to mention that Jiang Chenshuang relied on her own efforts to gain a firm foothold in this school with a very high elimination rate. At least she was not dismissed from the school because she couldn't keep up with her studies and failed too many subjects. So many times when my sister Jiang Chenlu had something to do at school, the head teacher would call Jiang Chenshuang directly to tell her, so naturally she was very familiar with her.

"Oh, what's the matter with Teacher Gao?" Jiang Chenshuang asked.

"Lao Gao asked me to ask you if you are talking about friends with that awesome brother Ning Wei."

"Ah? How did Teacher Gao know?" Jiang Chenshuang asked subconsciously.

"Is it true? Sister, you are really talking about being friends with that Ning Wei! So the questions you sent me last time were all done by Ning Wei for me?" the other person asked in a happy tone.

"Actually, we just got together." Jiang Chenshuang explained.

"It's been at least more than a month, right? Lao Gao said he saw it on the Internet. Brother Ning Wei announced that you were his girlfriend when he attended a meeting abroad. But no one knew it at that time. He happened to be there today I saw someone on the Internet saying that Ning Wei's girlfriend is named after you. When I asked him about the exercise set you mailed, he mentioned it and asked me to call you to ask. I didn't expect it to be true! "

There is no explanation now.

Fortunately, the older sister didn't need to explain this to her younger sister. She immediately showed off her eldest sister's air and said, "Why do you care about this? Your mission now is to study hard and strive to get into a good university in the future. That's the serious thing."

However, the girl opposite was not afraid of her at all: "Hey, I just called my mother and reported to her about your relationship with your friend. She asked me to tell you, don't hide the situation of our family from others, and let you Tell people that although she can't bring out any dowry, she doesn't have to give up the bride price. By the way, mom has repeatedly told me that as long as it's not my grandma's business, she won't drag us down. I want you to be tougher and say that you have a soft temper and don't be bullied. I will also help you explain to her that if your partner is really Brother Ning, and he is a high-minded person, he will definitely not care about this. Am I right? "

"You are the only one with a lot of things! Okay, now you know it, go to bed quickly!"

“Wait a minute, sister, can you tell me our brother-in-law’s WeChat account?”

"What brother-in-law? Don't yell, we haven't reached that stage yet! Besides, the school doesn't let you use mobile phones, so why do you want him to use WeChat?"

"You forgot, the day after tomorrow is the National Day, and we also have a holiday, okay? If you can't do math problems at home, you can ask your brother-in-law for help!"

"No, just ask me! Don't disturb him. He is very busy and has endless things to do every day."

"Actually, my mother asked me to join him, so that I could see what our future brother-in-law is like."

"You... let me ask him tomorrow."

"Okay, that's it, sister, you go to bed early."

"You should also go to bed early, and you are not allowed to play with your mobile phone at night."

"I know, sister, I fell asleep while studying the exam questions."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Chenshuang stood in the corridor and felt a little confused. How could such a thing be posted online?

…

At the same time, Ning Wei was thinking about how to continue causing trouble in front of March.

It has been determined that classmate March has indeed gained some fame. Ning Wei feels that what Senior Brother Lu said seems to be right. It is time to submit a paper in the name of March, but what topic should he choose?