Why the scientific publication process is like a traditional Indian wedding…

It is 12.15 am on a Thursday. A religious holiday here in Germany. I had a good badminton session the previous evening and was scrolling through the never-ending social media websites: first Facebook- filled with wedding and baby pictures from friends, and then Twitter, filled with "I am in-person conferencing this year, feels so good" and "Out now! Recent publication from our lab..." posts. In between my tiredness and thoughts, my mind immediately came up with the title. I quickly noted it in my Gkeep and went to bed. It's noon now, so let's talk about it.

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Science propels the world forward through innovation. As with every other manmade regulation, innovation is also highly regulated. While intellectual property rights offer monetary benefits to reward innovative spirits, open science on the other hand is key to driving knowledge forward. During the recent pandemic, 'open science' provided free dissemination of information for the benefit of the society. For my non-scientific friends- 'open science' means keeping the possibility of reading a scientific research publication open to any one in the world without hiding it behind a pay wall. While there is still a long way to go before the 'open science' culture becomes a norm, there are never-resolved, long standing complaints about the publication process itself... which we know over the years is becoming less about science and more about reputation, nepotism and well, impact factor. This is the right time to introduce you to another similar process, traditional Indian weddings!

Research Process | Growing up

The scientific process begins in the lab (but PIs, of course, rightly point out that it is the time of starting to write a grant application). It is a rigorous phase of building knowledge, hard work and perseverance. There is one or sometimes several questions to be answered, and carefully controlled experiments are performed to test the hypotheses. It is very much like one's entire childhood growing up. It is the time when there are a wide range of possibilities, and creativity along with curiosity can push you forward. It is when most mistakes are made and the best of lessons are learnt. This phase is the foundation of you, and your research.

Now let's begin the inevitable and irrational process

Step 1: Manuscript Writing | Setting up a wedding profile

It is finally time to put those years of hard work to the scrutiny of the world/ society. The first step is curation. Research papers are written in a standard format that begins with introducing your research and current knowledge in the field, followed by how you performed your research, what did you find, how it fits what is already known, and its future potential. Traditionally, it follows the pattern of setting up a personal wedding profile. A wedding profile is like a CV, but with some emotion. You need to choose the right pictures and write the most appealing description of yourself and your interests. As generic as it may sound, this is where most matches are made or end. Mostly like an 'abstract' section of the manuscript. You need to make it right if you want this process to work! Until this everything is under your control as it is only you in the playing field, your opinions and your choices.

Step 2: Choose a journal | Searching for a partner

During the process of writing a manuscript, there is already an idea as to what journals the research work can be sent to. Much like knowing the kind of person you would like to meet. This is the most ambitious step in the process. Journals have an impact factor that is calculated based on the forward application of the research published in it. Higher the score, more impactful the research is. While this is true in some cases, most often it is not. The submission starts with the journals you are interested in and you think there might be a mutual interest, and take it from there. Rejections are common and they are influenced by biases. In these structured processes, it is not always about the ideal love-match but there are several confounding factors. If all of them fall into place, the first step is considered a success. If you do manage to have that first impression on the Editor, it is a plus!

Step 3: Peer-review | Parents scrutiny

Now that there is a profile match, it is time for the parents to decide if they like each other. While it is common for non-Indians/Asians to wonder why up until now it is still not about the two people who actually will live the life together, to them I can tell you I have no rational answer. It is like the question to which you will never get a real answer, "Why did the journal reject your paper?" The peer-review stage can be productive or destructive. It very much depends on the people involved and what their end goal is. Parents that have the welfare of their children as their first priority often tend to ask the most rational questions to know and understand more about the other family and their potential son-/daughter-in-law. But reviewers who are unreasonable or have undisclosed conflict of interest can sabotage this stage but putting forward abstract requests and unreasonable expectations that can never be fulfilled. Hence, this step is a key decision making stage.

Step 4: Revision | Conversation with potential partner

This is the stage where meaningful things happen. The revision process rightfully challenges the ideas of the study and elevates the quality of the manuscript. Muck like when you actually talk to the person behind the profile. The right person elevates your life in several forms. It is one of the last important stages, but the deal is not done yet!

Step 5: Final decision

Editors are steering forces in the publication process. Parents are, when it comes to Indian weddings! They have the final say. You impress them, then the job is done. This is why networking works well both in the field of science and matchmaking. People always trust people they know. Editors trust the work of colleagues they are aware of and parents trust families they know of. But the caveat of such nuclear spaces is that it is difficult for new entrants to breach. In matchmaking, the largest bias that still exists is caste and such decisions change the architecture of the society we live in. In science, publications in high impact factor journals result in recognition and higher funding opportunities, and exclusivity bias renders young researchers devoid of such opportunities.

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One of the first things that came to my mind while thinking about this topic was a recent conversation I had about publication fees. Journals seem to be boosting this to upward of 5000 USD which is an insane amount of money to spend, especially for third world countries who already struggle to purchase expensive reagents. While I was pondering over how unfair this is, I remembered the many families I know of who are saving up money and gold for their daughter's wedding (dowry!). And then a similarity between the publication system and the wedding market emerged. In both cases, you pay huge amounts of money into a system that almost always benefits from you rather than being a benefit to you. Finding the middle ground is important. Compensation for the process of peer-review and publication must be provided in ways that will not cripple the community it was established for in the first place. One does not have pay their way into a wedding but instead work towards having a respectful, equal marriage. Easier said than done? Yes. But we can start thinking about what is it that we can do and how we can change our own decisions to make this a better process.

Finding analogies is an immigrant thing,

Swetha