On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:16:32 -0700, Christopher D. Green wrote: >Here's an opportunity to impress upon students the importance of not >publishing the same data twice (at least, not without being very >explicit that this is what one is doing).
This may give people new research opportunities as well as extending the review process of publications. Consider the case of Charles Nemeroff M.D. who has been somewhat in the news lately. According to a New York Times article, Nemeroff is author/co-author of over "850 research reports and reviews" (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/health/policy/04drug.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin According to Nemeroff's biography page at Emory University, he was born in 1949 (see: http://www.psychiatry.emory.edu/NeuropsychopharmacologyLaboratory/Charles%20Nemeroff.htm Being generous and allowing for Nemeroff to have have started publishing at 20 years of age, this leaves about 39 years of publishing for a somewhat astounding 21.80 publications per year or 1.8 publications per month. It would be interesting to have answers to the following general questions based on a representative sample of researchers: (1) What is the median time to write a research article? (2) Does the median time to write a research article depend upon the number of authors? (Note: are all contributing authors identified or are there "ghost writers" making contributions?) (3) What is the median time to publication for a report that is accepted (either completely or with revision) the first time it is submitted to a journal. (4) What is the median time to publication for a report that is accepted after being rejected by one or more journals. (5) Given the above time periods, how many articles could a productive researcher reasonably expect to publish during one's lifetime. Given the other responsibilities that a researcher may have, especially a clinical researcher/practioner, one has to wonder how much time is spent teaching, being an administrator, seeing patients, actually conducting/supervising research, attending meetings, and so on. I assume that some time is spent doing nonessential activities (e.g., eating, sleeping, etc.) but, given the volume of professional activity, one can assume that the time spent in such activities is negligible. ;-) I am sure that we all could learn much by studying the habits of successful researchers. -Mike Palij New York University [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
