In the peer
review system, science is represented by two separate yet equally important
groups: the reviewers, who examine manuscripts, and the associate editors, who
publish the articles. These are their stories [1].
I was asked to review a manuscript recently, and as
I was reading it, I started to think that the authors had HARKed [2] about half
their hypotheses. Although I’ve reviewed manuscripts before, this was the first
time I caught the odor of questionable research practices (QRPs). In the
interest of preserving the confidentiality of the review process, I’m not going
to provide any details about the manuscript and will instead focus on my own
experience, which was confusing, somewhat distressing, and led me to consider
what reviewers should do when they suspect researchers didn’t do things quite
right.
