Ever play that game where you take the fortune from a fortune cookie and then add “in bed” to the end of it for a funny reinterpretation? I’ve found it works pretty well if you just replace “in bed” with “in peer review”. Behold (from some recent fortune cookies I got):
Look for the dream that keeps coming back. It is your destiny in peer review.
Wiseness makes for oneself an island which no flood can overwhelm in peer review.
Ignorance never settles a question in peer review.
In the near future, you will discover how fortunate you are in peer review.
Every adversity carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit in peer review.
You will find luck when you go home in peer review.
Also reminds me of the weirdest fortune I ever got: “Alas! The onion you are eating is someone else’s water lily.” Not sure exactly what that means, in peer review or otherwise…
Inspired by your post on commenting on scientific papers, I'd like to add a quick comment.
ReplyDeleteI hypothesize that the onion fortune wishes to point out the irony that both onions and lilies are the bulbs of similar-looking plants with nice flowers, but we usually dig up and eat the former before it can grow new leaves and flowers while we leave the latter to bloom and then praise it for its beauty. The flaw in my interpretation is that water lilies are distantly related to lilies and onions and have rhizomes but not bulbs...
Cheers.