Saturday, March 21, 2009

Best. Journal. Ever.

Courtesy Mariano Beguerisse Diaz, here is the best scientific journal ever.

It's called Rejecta Mathematica, and it only publishes papers that have been rejected by another journal. (Granted, one can already post the paper on the arXiv, but this is still bloody awesome!)

I think it's worth giving some of the content of their home page here. The aims of the journal are:

"Rejecta Mathematica is a new, open access, online journal that publishes only papers that have been rejected from peer-reviewed journals (or conferences with comparable review standards) in the mathematical sciences. We are currently seeking submissions for our inaugural issue."

Here is the first part of their 'about' section:

At Rejecta Mathematica, we believe that many previously rejected papers can nonetheless have a very real value to the academic community. This value may take many forms:

"mapping the blind alleys of science": papers containing negative results can warn others against futile directions;

"reinventing the wheel": papers accidentally rederiving a known result may contain new insight or ideas;

"squaring the circle": papers discovered to contain a serious technical flaw may nevertheless contain information or ideas of interest;

"applications of cold fusion": papers based on a controversial premise may contain ideas applicable in more traditional settings;

"misunderstood genius": other papers may simply have no natural home among existing journals.



Finally, the 'General Physics' section of the March Meeting will lead to some publications! Just don't get rejected from this journal... (I wonder if the authors of the web site buried the official revelation of the joke anywhere. I still can't find it and can only thank them for putting the time to create this web site. I approve!)

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