I'm supposed to be happy about this?

[bittergem]

I just heard back from the Journal of Neuroscience. My paper is "potentially suitable for publication", but first it needs "major revisions". Not the experiments we expected them to ask for, but others I would have liked to have done if my old BayMate hadn't moved back to China. And possibly more of the morphometric analysis, which will take a

Comments

[cdsdame]

Probably because it's a JOURNAL, and other doctors etc will be reading it, they are more picky? That's just what I think. And, they didn't tell you "It sucks!", just that it needs changes. That's what I think, but it's just my two cents, and I'm only a lowly English major, so wtf do I know? :)

[bittergem]

Thanks!

I went and reread the comments. They're not as bad as I first thought (though I still don't think they're great). It probably doesn't help that I'm crampy and hormonal. Everything looks worse under those circumstances.

And my PI did say this: "you don’t often see words like amazing and exceptional in a paper review".

I'm going to try to look on the bright side for the rest of the weekend. After I take some ibuprofen...

[molliebatmit]

Barf.

Congratulations, of course, for getting good reviews, and you absolutely deserve to be happy. Just maybe not immediately.

One of the grad students in my lab is going through the same process -- the reviews have been great, but somehow he's had to do two rounds of revisions. I feel like paper reviews are getting to be like NIH grants, in that they just want you to revise almost for the sake of revision, regardless of how actually on-point the critiques are. I think it's dumb.

[bittergem]

The problem is the reviews aren't great. They were impressed with the genetics, which is all one one figure (of 8 I think). They were not so impressed with actually trying to explain the genetics. They want a whole complicated mess of muscle histology (that I kinda wanted to do before, but didn't have the time or the expertise to do). So, they're a lot wrong that the good stuff doesn't make up for. And I haven't done experiments for almost a year. I was actually starting to have a life away from lab and I don't really want to go back. :-(

EYah!?

[hansontogo]

Sounds like it's almost there yet still far away. I will hold the fireworks till you told me you are in a happier mood lady! OH I do remember those morphormetric analysis.. they do take a while and hrs in front of the computer drawing circles after circles. Hope all is well!! I've read some previous post of yours and your boss did sound like he had a little tantrum and that the future funding of the lab sure push him over.
Talk soon, peace!

Re: EYah!?

[bittergem]

Thanks! I'll be sure to let you know how things go!