Re: JSH: Mistakes happen

From: David C. Ullrich (ullrich_at_math.okstate.edu)
Date: 07/19/04 

Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 09:46:18 -0500

On 19 Jul 2004 06:43:33 -0700, jstevh@msn.com (James Harris) wrote:

>akolowski@hotmail.com (Andrzej Kolowski) wrote in message news:<a1fa83d9.0407181346.57ad8d81@posting.google.com>...
>> jstevh@msn.com (James Harris) wrote in message news:<3c65f87.0407180806.6191474f@posting.google.com>...
>> >Now a poster has found a minor series of mistakes in my APF paper, and
>> >I admit some chagrin. But mistakes happen. As an author you can
>> >write something and for a lot of psychological reasons (and just plain
>> >carelessness) miss mistakes.
>> >
>>
>> ... And overlook them for over a year, even during extended arguments
>> about exactly that part of a very short paper!
>>
>>
>> >I don't know why I wasn't notified of that mistake by Ioannis Argyros,
>> >but given what I've seen from editors at Southwest Journal of
>> >Mathematics, I'm not surprised.
>> >
>>
>> Simple. No one ever looked at it. Your claims that it passed
>> peer review are bogus, probably the result of inexcusable
>> carelessness by the editor.
>>
>
>I was told by Ioannis Argyros that the paper passed peer review.
>
>Here's a direct quote with the original grammar errors:
>
>"Our decision to accept the paper for publication in SWJPAM
>was based on positive opinions received by the reviewers.
>
>You can visit(sometime in May):
>http://rattler.cameron.edu/swjpam/swjpam.html
>to find it.
>
>Thanks for sending your nice paper to us."
>
>Now then, given *your* find of errors it is reasonable to consider the
>possibility that Ioannis Argyros lied, which may mean that NONE of the
>papers published in the journal along with mine were actually
>reviewed!!!

The paper did _not_ pass a competent review, regardless
of what anyone says about what anyone says. There are lots
of possibilities, of which the idea that the editor lied
seems least likely. Could be a clerical error. Could be
that the referee was not competent.

>So the authors of other papers might need to be contacted if you
>people on sci.math actually care about such a thing, or you can just
>let it go.
>
>My guess is that no one will even bother to look into it as this
>newsgroup is not about substance. None of you really care if all the
>papers published actually were reviewed, so you won't push the issue.
>
>You don't care.
>
>But you *do* care if my paper was reviewed or not. So the problem for
>you isn't about correctness of the results or proper review, but with
>whether or not you can attack my paper.
>
>Now my position that my paper was reviewed was based on the words of
>Argyros.
>
>Given that Argyros is the chief editor of SWJPAM, it seemed reasonable
>to believe him.
>
>
>James Harris

************************

David C. Ullrich