9 May 2005: Publishing

Rejected by yet another publisher? Fear not! You too can get your paper published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

At least, that's what The Scientist are reporting. Apparently, one David Egilman had a research paper rejected by JOEM, and disagreeing with their assessment that it was not of interest to the journal's readers, he contacted the marketing department and paid them to print his paper as a two-page advertisement. He included a feedback form in which readers could submit how interesting they found the article (and they did indeed find it interesting). And that's how you do it.

Of course, it helps if the company funding the research paper (Dow papers) is also indirectly tied to the journal in question, and you also need the money to fund the advertising space. But still, the precedent is set: I'm thinking of taking out a slot in Nature for a short paper titled "Six Months In Search Of Impact Ratings", in which I wrap my ongoing search for valid qualitative bibliometrics as a short story featuring a brave yet underqualified mouse named James and his battle against the big bad cat of normative scientific procedure. Or something. I think the MIT boys should try it with their paper too.

And come to think of it, maybe this is the best way to get Six Months In Search Of A Curry published after all.