Peer review: it's not personal

The romance of research captured our imagination, and we took up the challenge. We identified a topic, and we found collaborators and support, funding, and time for the research. Finally, we analysed the results and crafted a research paper into shape. The process was long, with rewrites, rewording, and reconsideration, which took much time and effort. Even the abstract was difficult. Hopefully this article gives a measured view of the next part of the process-peer review (see figure).

This time it wasn't just a piece of coursework. The work had been submitted to a real journal for publishing and the metaphorical envelope sealed with a final click. Was that an ectopic heartbeat? By the time the pulse had settled the work had been delivered along the digital superhighway to the journal's server. The final version was waiting to be downloaded by the editor.

You were again lost to the demands of your time by patients, the on-call rota, lectures, and the realities of day to day life. Just as the paper has been relegated to the second division of worries in the “out of sight and out of mind” league an innocuous email arrived.

Without a thought and with a light fingered click you stare, aghast, at the response from the editor. It takes sometime to understand what has happened. Something seems to have gone wrong. There seem to be endless pages of criticism. You're sure you can feel a headache starting, …