My PI, after receiving no change of rejection decision on an article I am 1st author on, after an appeal, had to get the last word in with the editor.
Essentially, we got rejected. My PI instantly decided we were going to appeal the decision. When they appealed, the went off on 2/3 reviews (basically the negative ones). We got the appeal decision early in the week to which they replied with a horrifyingly snarky back handed thanks. They complained that the new review was a paragraph(it was > 1 pg) and “didn’t give anything new”. It seemed very rude, not the best professionalism, and bad to do to what’s considered one of the popular journals for our field. It’s hard to give much more detail other than co-authors have a long time relationship with my PI.
Other things that happened during submission included my PI recycling a letter from a past submission and therefore it was addressed to the wrong journal. I mentioned it right away but they said it was not a big deal and happens all the time. This was mentioned by 2 of the reviews and I’m sure the editors saw it too.
So coming to vent and wonder if it’s worth action? Not the worst thing this individual has done but I’m concerned of the ramifications I have done the road for my career. I’ve considered just emailing the editor directly apologizing and thanking them for their time? Also considered going to our department as well (but then there’s not a lot of anonymity to that).
Comments
Cover letters don’t make it to the reviewers, even on Nature/Science. They’re for editors eyes only.
So I would say maybe the entire editorial process is not entire clear to you first of all (EDIT: looks like I was wrong and OP was right: there are journals that do this, however weird it might sound to me)?
Second, this sounds like pretty normal to me: especially for high level journals, it’s quite normal to push back against reviewers, normal for editors to reject appeals and yes, I’ve seen people reply to that with essentially a “jeez, thanks for nothing”.
Also normal for PI to take charge of these kind of communications, albeit it would be preferable they made the coauthors aware.
So no, this won’t have “ramifications” for your career. Yours is one of hundreds of submissions an editor will read. If you have all these misgivings yes, you can talk to your PI. Going to the department WILL have repercussions on the other hand: seems completely non-collegial, nor good for your relationship with your PI, to complain about how he handled a routine interaction for something he has more experience on with you.
Going to the department is a TERRIBLE idea. Not only would it expose you have having no clue about how any of this works (see u/turin-turambar21’s response), it would also make you look like a dick to your PI and the rest of the department. You really, really, really need more experience understanding how all of this works before you start decrying things as unethical/problematic.
I don’t get the full story.
1) Have you appealed or our PI, or your PI in your name? Some people try to bend the rules and other know that and them. If its not from you, I wouldn’t care (even if you are the first author). This will—probably—rather be associated with your PI and not with you.
2) What do you think about the reviews? Was the criticism and rejection warranted or not? Appealing an decision can be the right thing to do if the reviewers really screwed up (which happens, e.g., if they did multiple reviews in a row and mixed up the articles and the reviews) nor have not read you article well. If it’s justified I would rather spend my time on discussing how to improve the article for a resubmission (elsewhere). I have learned more from good rejections than from anything else.
I just want to echo everyone else here and assure you that your PI’s behavior here will not be taken out on you. Personally, I would suggest you just let it go and resolve to be better than your PI. But if it’s really upsetting you, I’d suggest bringing it up to your PI and having a sit down about it.
If you let it go, this will not affect you at all. If you respond to the editor or go to your chair, you will make it into A Thing and at best nothing will happen, at worst there will be a negative consequence for you. (For example, if the editor forwards your email to your PI.)
It’s unfortunate that sometimes people act unprofessionally, but science is done by humans and sometimes humans act emotionally. The editor is an adult and will shrug it off. It’s important to learn to pick your battles and only fight battles you can win. This situation is too minor for you to gain anything but assuming you are a student, you are effectively at the bottom of the food chain (sorry to phrase it like that) and have a lot to lose.
I work in academic publishing. We see appeals every day basically, and some are int readily disrespectful. It happens. Won’t reflect on you in any way other than your Pi may decide not to submit to the journal in the future, but that’s on your PI and not on you.