Only the Highest Standards

I n this issue, we are pleased to offer the second DNACB Bit, invited by Maurizio Molinari. Leitman and colleagues have contributed a short review on distinct functional domains of the endoplasmic reticulum.

Recently, there was a disturbing article in The Chronicle of Higher Education [http://chronicle.com/article/Fake-Peer-Reviews-the-Latest/134784/] about authors manipulating the peer review process by creating false aliases and assigning that false alias as a reviewer on their articles. This manipulation of the process strongly questions the integrity of the peer review process in some journals, allows for much debate on decisions being made on articles, not to mention the questionable integrity of the science that is published and available. Rest assured that the team at DNA and Cell Biology is cognizant of this practice, and we apply only the highest standards of peer review and of scientific rigor to the articles we accept.

We have also received many e-mails from trainees who are eager to participate in the peer review. While an important part of their career development is to learn how to evaluate manuscripts, we encourage their mentors to involve students or postdoctoral fellows in the art.

Many manuscripts have been coming in for consideration that are merely bioinformatics studies, such as meta-analysis of other publications or examination of the frequency of a polymorphism with a syndrome. To be sent out for review by our team of editors, the molecular mechanism of action of the polymorphism must be shown. Consequently, more than half of the submissions received have been immediately rejected at the level of the editor. This decision does not reflect on the validity or importance of the observations described in the manuscript, but on the types of science we will publish.