Dear Ecolog-Listers: Some of you know that I run a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Although I have published in a number of other journals, I do not remember ever withdrawing a paper of mine after it has been accepted. Thus, I do not have experience with the typical publishers' behavior in those cases. Note, herein, I am not asking about authors not wanting their paper reviewed. I have 0 tolerance for those and, when that has happened, the papers are returned to the authors. Instead, herein, I am concerned about authors whose papers are accepted, all reviews returned, and even some editorial work on my part, etc. Background follows:
Recently, a large (ca. 25 printed pages) paper was withdrawn from my journal by authors from a country other than the USA four days before going to press. The reason given, herein I paraphrase, is the some of the authors did not like to publish in my journal. Frankly, after all the work the reviewers and I put, I was not pleased but, I wished them the best. However, looking forward... several colleagues have suggested me to make it mandatory the signing of a form (*by all authors, including their functional emails*) *not only the corresponding author*, indicating that: a. The paper is not under consideration in another journal. Could someone tell me how common it is these days to send papers to two (or more) journals simultaneously? I thought that was an absolute "thou shall not" but apparently, I am in error. Could someone tell me why are some folks doing that? By the way, I publisher told me this sort of thing happens ca. 10% of the papers and that it is part of being a publisher! b. Once accepted, only editorial decision can remove an already accepted paper. c. If you have other suggestions (or the actual forms used in other journals), to minimize this type of author's behavior, please feel free to send them along. I shall request permission to use/modify from the publishers. Any feedback, please send it to me directly (blayjo...@gmail.com). Thank you. Gratefully, Jorge Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD blaypublishers.com 1. Positive experiences for authors of papers published in *LEB* http://blaypublishers.com/testimonials/ 2. Free examples of papers published in *LEB*: http://blaypublishers.com/category/previous-issues/. 3. *Guidelines for Authors* and page charges of *LEB*: http://blaypublishers.com/archives/ *.* 4. Want to subscribe to *LEB*? http://blaypublishers.com/subscriptions/ http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/ http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.cfm
