Please find enclosed a manuscript that has been submitted to BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES. Papers are accepted for publication in BBS only if they are judged by our referees to be appropriate for Open Peer Commentary, the special service provided by BBS to researchers in psychology, neuroscience, behavioral biology, and cognitive science who wish to solicit multiple responses, from fellow specialists within and across BBS disciplines, to a particularly significant and controversial piece of work.
We would be very grateful if you would referee this manuscript for BBS. The criteria for accepting manuscripts are described in the enclosed Instructions for Authors and Commentators. In brief, a judgment must be made not only as to quality but also as to whether the material merits Commentary. If a high quality manuscript is not found to have a convincing rationale for soliciting Commentary, one that promises a scientifically productive service for author, commentators and the behavioral and brain science community, then the author should be advised to submit the manuscript to a conventional journal.
One of the surest indices of appropriateness for Commentary of an otherwise high quality manuscript is that it readily calls to mind a number of researchers who could provide substantive criticism, interpretation, elaboration or pertinent complementary or supplementary material. It would be extremely helpful if, together with your report, you would list all such potential commentators. If the article is accepted for publication, they will be approached by BBS to submit formal commentary. Enclosed is a current list of BBS Associates, but please do not hesitate to recommend unaffiliated commentators as well.
In addition to providing commentary from the pertinent specialists in a particular article's subject matter, one of the most important functions of the BBS service is to provide input from specialists across the entire spectrum of behavioral and brain sciences. with this object in mind, please also include in your list of potential commentators representatives from those BBS disciplines that are external to the subject matter of the manuscript. It is also particularly important that BBS Commentaries be fully international. The names of qualified oerseas, Eastern European and Far Eastern investigators would be expecially helpful.
Your refereeing will be anonymous unless you specify otherwise. In your report please separate clearly those of your recommendations that should be forwarded to the author from those that could profitably be incorporated into your own formal commentary later, should the article be accepted for publication. Of course, the quality of an article should never be compromised by withholding any remarks that could be helpful to the author in preparing the final revised draft.
The service of Open Peer Commentary is provided for current controversial material. It is critically important that it be made available with a minimum of delay. Referees are asked to respond as soon as possible so that the elaborate and complicated second-round Commentary process can be promptly initiated should the article be accepted.
We require your referee's report by ___________________.
Rating and Evaluation Sheet (please fill out)
Acceptable Requires minor Major Revision Unacceptable Significance A m M U Originality A m M U Generality A m M U Presentation A m M U Scholarship A m M U Data/Methods A m M U Reasoning A m M U Theory A m M U Length A m M U
Note to referees who are not yet formally BBS Associates A qualified professional who has either been nominated by a current BBS Associate, referee for BBS, or had a commentary or an article accepted for publication can serve as an Associate.
With many thanks for your cooperation in this project.
Stevan Harnad, Editor
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
Department of Psychology
University of Southampton
Highfield, Southampton
SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM
bbs@@cogsci.soton.ac.uk
phone: +44 703 594-583
fax: +44 703 593-281
ftp://ftp.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/pub/bbs
ftp://ftp.princeton.edu/pub/harnad/
http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/bbs/
http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/
gopher://gopher.princeton.edu/11/.libraries/.pujournals