You might see science as splashy headline and a barrage of new results — but in the setting are the great unwashed with emotions and ambitions , politics , and a system that advance publishing novel findings above all . A Modern paper on eel navigation highlight some of these systemic troubles .
The solution of the study were n’t all that surprising or Earth - shattering : A squad of American and Swiss researchers seemingly found that European eels conjoin the list of aquatic brute who pilot the globe by sense the Earth ’s magnetic field in some room . One of the paper ’s initial reviewers deemed the authors ’ research unfit to publish , but it ended up getting print anyway , the details fundamentally unchanged , in a different but equally reputable scientific daybook .
While not speaking on this specific lawsuit , Adam Marcus , science guard dog and editor of Retraction Watch ( and managing editor of Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News ) tell Gizmodo : “ If you shoot high and you lose you’re able to always go for another publication . ”
The researchers behind the field of study already recognize that several animate being , like ocean turtleneck and salmon , navigated the globe using positional data establish on the Earth ’s magnetic field . They wanted to know whether this was the rule or the exception among migrating aquatic brute .
So they await to eels . They scooped up a couple hundred adolescent European eels , brought them to a inquiry facility , and put them in a cylindric tank ten inches in diameter and six inches deep with twelve compartment around the edge , the whole matter twine with copper wire . The investigator revivify what the Earth ’s charismatic field would look like in four unlike places along the eel migration route in the cylinder , and for each of the trials numerate how many eel got trap in which compartment . The eel ’ choices demonstrate to the investigator that the animal have a sorting of “ magnetic function ” of the Earth . In other words , European eels employ the satellite ’s field strength — as recreated in this experiment — and the battleground ’s angle with the Earth ’s airfoil to navigate .
The squad initially resign their composition to the moderately high - impact diary Nature Communications , where several investigator brush up it . One liked it , but one had many reservation . “ I identified the major impuissance of their study such as the use of the wrong life - stage : using 2 year old eels called juvenile and take they would behave as fresh hatched larva , ” Caroline Durif , fourth-year research scientist at the Institute of Marine Research in Norway who go over the paper , tell Gizmodo . “ Compared to larvae , the glass eels have undergone a transfiguration and have a totally different sensory organisation . ” Basically she thought the researchers were testing older eel , while feign the environments of larval eels .
“ It ’s like taking a butterfly and expect to bear like a caterpillar , ” she said .
She also recall there were problems with the observational setup and the statistic , and that the research worker should have used brine when they used fresh water . “ The review process is anon. , but I do n’t have a job saying what I think . It ’s not a good discipline , ” say Durif .
Study generator Nathan Putman thought Durif ’s inspection was biased and unjust , and intend that using two - twelvemonth - previous eels versus larvae or saltwater versus freshwater was irrelevant to what he was attempt to show . “ We were n’t testing their reception to seawater or freshwater . We were need a magnetised question , ” he distinguish Gizmodo . “ I get her concern but at the same time it ’s worth guess about what the question at hand is and how you most efficiently [ answer ] that question . ”
So Putman ’s squad resubmittedtheir paperto Current Biology with few change , where it experience irrefutable reviews and was accepted with slight worry . The daybook published that composition today .
Other experts really seemed to wish the newspaper . Jim Gould , professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University , told Gizmodo it was an impressive “ tour - de - force . ” “ The rejection was a surprisal to me , ” he said . Gould proposed the magnetic mapping hypothesis that Putman ’s team is essay way back in 1982 .
Durif say her research is n’t at all threatened by Putman’s — that in fact , his team ’s conclusion , that eels have a sort of single-valued function of the Earth ’s magnetized bailiwick , would only support hers . But she pointed out that another of the Nature Communications reviewers learned about her concerns and fit in with her assessment . She and a group of eel and magnetic orientation experts plan on Colorado - sign a response to the paper . “ I ’m stunned that they have managed to get the holograph bring out , ” she said .
“ Let ’s accept for a second that the enquiry is deeply flawed , ” said Marcus , again not speaking about this particular font . “ It ’s a Sojourner Truth of the current mood of scientific discipline publishing that you could get anything anywhere if you try hard enough or lower your mess for journals with downcast standards of quality . ”
But Putman ’s team did n’t seek to issue in a lower lineament journal . Nature Communications and Current Biology are n’t the flagship Nature and Cell journals from their respective publishing company , but they ’re still gamey - impact and receive a mint of attention both from scientists and journalists ( I assure both weekly for stories ) . Many scientist get reject from the most selective journal and go for an easier one . In this vitrine , the study generator moved between similarly selective journal .
Nature Communications ’ editor turned down a petition for comment give that review are supposed to stay confidential . Current Biology was proud of the theme . “ It is not uncommon for daybook to put out document that were reviewed somewhere else and many great paper do n’t get into their first - pick journal , ” Cell Press medium relation manager Joseph Caputo tell Gizmodo in an electronic mail . “ We ’re glad the employment came to us and we ’re majestic for it to seem in Current Biology . ”
at last , the problem goes beyond whether eels navigate with a magnetic map , an internal reach , or by some other means entirely . It rest in the fact that the system is work up around scientists needing to get published to boom . If a journal takes a story that another one rejected , there ’s no bonus to go back and upgrade your research in reception to a negative review .
“ It highlights the problem in science publication , ” aver Durif . “ It ’s a lottery . ”
[ Current Biology ]
Magnetic FieldsScience
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