Rapid, Impartial and Comprehensive (RIC) publishing: A new concept for scientific journals
(2011)Abstract
Publishing scientific journals governed by editors relying on anonymous peer reviewing is slow (even one round of reviewing involves several communications between authors, editor and reviewers), partial (arguments of authors can hardly overrule those of reviewers) and not using all available scientific material (even the most thorough and insightful reviews remain for the eyes of authors and editors only). Here I propose a new concept for scientific journals that ensures rapid, impartial and comprehensive (RIC) publishing. RIC concept is based on implementation of two novel publishing principles: the first (rapid) editorial screening of a submitted manuscript should result in its either "rejection" or äcceptance with optional revisions", and, in the latter case, the optionally revised (taking into account open reviews) paper should be published along with all (positive and negative) reviews, presenting thereby to the scientific community all available scientific material on the topic in question.