The editorial office of Science is as busy as ever.

Every day, a large number of manuscripts are sent from all over the world, and less than 1 in 10 are successfully published in journals.

Warren feels more like a gold digger than an editor. Screen new and groundbreaking papers from a large pool of manuscripts and put them in the hands of the right reviewers.

There is no doubt that this is a great job, because the whole world is being changed in this job.

At the same time, however, it is also a boring job.

As for why......

Because as one of the two top journals in the academic world, Science is too famous.

In order to be published here, the contributors are also unscrupulous. That's why they see all sorts of "breakthrough" developments every day.

To be honest, editors who are only half-footed in the academic world have no way of judging the correctness of a paper. Only the identity of the contributor, as well as the university or research institution, past submission records, and other information other than the paper can be used to determine whether a paper is eligible for peer review.

As usual, Warren brewed himself a refreshing cup of black coffee before work, then opened his work mailbox and received the papers that had been reviewed by the technical editors.

Looking at the emails, he couldn't help but feel a little numb in his scalp.

"I think the tech department should develop some new features for our office software."

"For example?" Bellock, who was dealing with the work at hand, asked casually.

Warren said angrily: "For example, before sending the paper to us, the cumulative impact factor of the contributor's past submission records and the academic ranking of the research institution are calculated and the weight value is calculated, and then ranked. ”

"It's a good idea, but it seems a little unfair to the unfamous contributors," Belloc laughs. ”

"What does it matter? We are Science, shouldn't we use a more scientific way to screen our manuscripts? While mercilessly dragging a paper into the recycle bin, Warren complained, "Some papers are just a waste of time." ”

I killed one paper and quickly opened the next one.

The moment he saw the title, Warren couldn't help but complain fiercely in his heart.

It's a lithium-sulfur battery again!

The previous article also claimed to have solved the shuttle effect, but it was only a study of solid-state electrolytes. To be honest, there is nothing wrong with the direction of solid electrolytes, but some of the errors in the paper are so obvious that even he, an editor with no review ability, can see them.

Recently, he has been throwing up all these kinds of papers.

Subconsciously looked at the contributor and the research institute he was working for, and just as Warren was thinking about how much he should waste a few minutes on this paper, he was suddenly stunned.

I saw that the name of the contributor seemed familiar......

If you look further into the research institute, you can see that it is filled with the Frick chemistry laboratory of Princeton University.

Then Warren discovered something even more surprising.

Submit not just one, but two......

Warren silently looked at the calendar resting in the corner of his desk.

Remembering that it had only been half a year since Science "highlights" a paper on modified PDMS materials published in the journal Nature, he couldn't believe that only half a year was enough to write another paper of the same level as "modified PDMS materials".

After solving the lithium dendrite problem, the shuttle effect was solved?

This is also an exaggeration!

However, Lu Zhou's academic reputation was there, and Warren still paid enough attention to this paper and carefully studied it line by line.

Then he made a mistake.

When it was time for the lunch break, Belloc, who was sitting at the next desk, stood up and was about to solve the problem of lunch.

At this moment, he noticed that the colleague next to him was staring at the screen with a frown, without the slightest intention of leaving his seat. Out of curiosity, he walked over and stood behind Warren to take a few looks.

"Lu Zhou? That Princeton professor? ”

Warren looked at the paper meticulously and replied casually: "Yes, I don't think Princeton will have a second professor whose name sounds so weird......"

Belloc's tone was a little surprised: "Unbelievable, it's only been half a year...... And do you submit two manuscripts together? ”

"And it's a lithium-sulfur battery, apparently he has made a big move," Warren stared at the computer screen, spinning the ballpoint pen in his hand nervously, "Two papers, one is about the effect of the specific surface area and pore size of hollow carbon spheres on the diffusion rate of polysulfide compounds, and the other is about the study of HCS-1 hollow carbon ball materials, the two papers have a certain correlation, the former focuses on theory, and the latter focuses on applications...... What to do? ”

Belloc hesitated and said, "I think Professor Lu's academic reputation can still be trusted, so it is better to leave the question of whether he is qualified to be published in the journal to the reviewers to judge?" ”

Warren had a headache: "I know, but the question is, who is this reviewer?" ”

It's really a conundrum.

A hint of embarrassment also appeared on Belloc's face.

"The paper on the hollow carbon ball material of HCS-1 is okay, and many professors who do carbon nanomaterials have the ability to review the manuscript, but this other paper ......" After thinking about it, he didn't come up with a suitable candidate.

Looking for a mathematics professor, there are not many people who are interested in organic chemistry. Looking for a big star in the field of organic synthesis, there are very few people who can understand Lu Zhou's papers.

In the circle of organic materials, there are many people who make carbon nanomaterials, and there are many research teams that make hollow carbon balls, but there are ...... who do computational materials Truth be told, it's too little.

Many people eventually changed careers to become code farmers, and their annual salaries more than doubled. And among those who do not forget their original intention and persevere, there are very few who can become big bulls.

Because of the miraculously born modified PDMS material, Lu Zhou has been praised as a god by his peers who make computational materials, and they are counting on him to save them like David Shaw saved computational chemistry.

To say that it is really difficult to find a suitable candidate from among these people who is qualified to review Lu Zhou's manuscript.

After thinking for a moment, Belloc tried to suggest, "Why don't you contact Professor Bawandi?" ”

"But is he studying carbon nanometers?" Warren frowned, "And I've heard that he's been busy lately and has turned down a lot of journal review invitations." ”

"But he has already served as a reviewer for Professor Lu twice, and he is the only one who knows more about his papers." "Or do you have a better candidate?" ”

"Then write to him and trouble him again." After a moment's hesitation, Warren immediately made the decision to drag the two papers into the folder used to store important manuscripts.

From the outset, he had no doubts about the eligibility of these two papers for publication.

If the shuttle effect can indeed be contained by this HCS-1 material, this achievement will undoubtedly be groundbreaking.

Naturally, it was a fitting publication in Science.