Dear Marc,
The only way a reviewer can really judge the quality ofa structure and
verify the claims made in a structural biology manuscript is by having
access to the pdb files and x-ray data. I have myself as a reviewer
requested co-ordinates and data for this purpose, and the results can be
quite revealing, both in positive and negative sense. I have no problem
myself to provide data when requested and even to release structures
before publication. The latter has helped me for a paper that was
accepted last week where one of the referees wrote in hes/her report
that he/she could only judge the paper correctly because the data were
available for downloading. Thus I am a strong advocate for all
structural data to be made available to referees upon submission of a
manuscript.
Science and scientific publishing requires a great deal of mutual trust.
This is not only for the reader or referee who has to trust that the
work is correct and not fraudulent. It also goes in the opposite way
where the author has to trust the referees and editors to be honest.
Only in this way can the system work. Otherwise, just keep everything
for yourself and don't publish. In the 23 years that I am active in
science I had only a single case where I genuinely believe a referee
misused his position. This to say that 99.99% of the referee reports
are honest, although not necessarily in agreement with your own vision.
Remy Loris
Vrije Universiteit Brussel and VIB
On 19/04/12 00:34, Marc Kvansakul wrote:
Dear CCP4BBlers,
I was wondering how common it is that reviewers request to have a copy
of the PDB coordinate file for the review purpose. I have just been
asked to supply this by an editor after several weeks of review, after
one of the reviewers requested a copy.
Not having ever been asked to do this before I feel just a tad
uncomfortable about handing this over…
Your opinions would be greatly appreciated.
Best wishes
Marc
Dr. Marc Kvansakul
Laboratory Head, NHMRC CDA Fellow
Dept. of Biochemistry| La Trobe University | Bundoora
Rm 218, Phys Sci Bld 4, Kingsbury Drive, Melbourne, 3086, Australia
T: 03 9479 2263 | F: 03 9479 2467 | E: m.kvansa...@latrobe.edu.au |
