Just some interesting information concerning the lack of peer review for the Journal Energy & Enviornment (E&E).
From [FONT="]
Greenfyre: dissecting a list of supposedly peer-reviewed papers from E&E found that:[/FONT]
[FONT="]A given paper in E&E may have been peer reviewed (but unlikely). If it was, the review process might have been up to the normal standards for science (but unlikely). Hence E&Es exclusion from the ISI Journal Master list, and why many (including Scopus) do not consider E&E a peer reviewed journal at all.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Further, even the editor states that it is not a science journal and that it is politically motivated/influenced. Finally, at least some of what it publishes is just plain loony.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Posted at Real Climate:[/FONT]
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John Hunter: [/FONT]
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20 Jan 2005 at 10:33 PM [/FONT]
[FONT="]You may be interested in my recent experience with the social science journal, Energy & Environment (E&E). In 2004 (Vol. 15, No. 3) E&E published a paper on sea level rise at Tuvalu by Willis Eschenbach, an amateur scientist and Construction Manager for the Taunovo Bay Resort in Fiji. The paper was entitled Tuvalu not Experiencing Increased Sea Level Rise which gives a general idea of the content. While most readers would assume that the paper had been peer-reviewed, on closer inspection it appears that the paper is what the Journal calls a Viewpoint Piece. The Editorial at the beginning of the Journal, also notes:[/FONT]
[FONT="]A fascinating story by a local resident, engineer and private scholar, Eschenbach offers a convincing and well documented explanation of the problems facing many Pacific islands. As we could not find any reviewer for his paper, we hope that it will attract responses from those who still believe that the compensation demanded by Tuvalu (with the help of Greenpeace and environmental lawyers) for damage caused by global warming, is indeed unjustified.[/FONT]
[FONT="]And what
John Lynch, an Honors Faculty Fellow at Barrett the Honors College at Arizona State University, says about E&E. Follow the link.
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Roger Pielke Jr, said
had we known then how that outlet would evolve beyond 1999 we certainly wouldnt have published there.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]And then we find a letter from Bill Huges, Director of Multi-Science Publishing, threatening to sue Gavin Schmidt, of Realclimate.org and a lead climatologist at NASA/GISS for questioning E&E's peer review process. Here's the letter: Oh BTW: Gavin Schmidt, the recipient of the letter posted it on Realclimate.org.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]From: Bill Hughes
Cc: Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen
Subject:: E&E libel
Date: 02/18/11 10:48:01[/FONT]
[FONT="]Gavin, your comment about Energy & Environment which you made on RealClimate has been brought to my attention:[/FONT]
[FONT="]The evidence for this is in precisely what happens in venues like E&E that have effectively dispensed with substantive peer review for any papers that follow the editors political line. [/FONT]
[FONT="]To assert, without knowing, as you cannot possibly know, not being connected with the journal yourself, that an academic journal does not bother with peer review, is a terribly damaging charge, and one Im really quite surprised that youre prepared to make. And to further assert that peer review is abandoned precisely in order to let the editor publish papers which support her political position, is even more damaging, not to mention being completely ridiculous. [/FONT]
[FONT="]At the moment, Im prepared to settle merely for a retraction posted on RealClimate. Im quite happy to work with you to find a mutually satisfactory form of words: I appreciate you might find it difficult. [/FONT]
[FONT="]I look forward to hearing from you.[/FONT]
[FONT="]With best wishes
Bill Hughes
Director
Multi-Science Publsihing [sic] Co Ltd [/FONT]
[FONT="]Then the Guardian publishes the story.[/FONT]
[FONT="]Despite E&E's threats, Schmidt has refused to retract his comments and maintains that the majority of papers published in the journal are "dross".[/FONT]
[FONT="]"I would personally not credit any article that was published there with any useful contribution to the science," he told the Guardian. "Saying a paper was published in E&E has become akin to immediately discrediting it." He also describes the journal as a "backwater" of poorly presented and incoherent contributions that "anyone who has done any science can see are fundamentally flawed from the get-go."[/FONT]
[FONT="]As an example, Schmidt points to an E&E
paper that claimed that the Sun is made of iron. "The editor sent it out for review, where it got trashed (as it should have been), and [Boehmer-Christiansen] published it anyway," he says.[/FONT]
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[FONT="]BTW, Gavin Schmidt has never retracted what he said about E&E and Hughes wrote another letter saying he would not sue.[/FONT]
Oh! And what does Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen, the editor of E&E have to say about her journal?
"When asked about the publication of skeptical papers Boehmer-Christiansen said, "I'm following my political agenda -- a bit, anyway. But isn't that the right of the editor?"
Source: There are many, for simplicity - Wiki -
Energy & Environment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia