To my disgust I recently discovered that scientist hire the services of commercial art bureau’s to have them make their figures. The resulting glossy, shining figures are supposed to increase the chances of acceptance in high-impact journals as Science and Nature. Nowadays with every submission to these journals the authors include a couple of – professionally made – illustrations, as suggestions to the editors to use them for the cover in case the article gets accepted.  What is next? A ghost writer who produces the text, but who is not part of the list of authors?

Read more... (547 words, 4 images, estimated 2:11 minutes reading time)