Bryan Cain, Reliable Research Literature, August 2007 Notices

Surely most mathematicians know not to just trust what's in even the "better" journals. But fewer of us may relize that some prominent authors, and some of these "good" journals and their editors, aren't striving to make the research literature more reliable. Instead they:
  1. recklessly publish without proofreading/refereeing;
  2. irresponsibly do nothing when serious errors are found/reported; and/or
  3. perversely obstruct the publication of significant corrections.
While it may be impossible to stop all the cheating, journal publishers – corporations and math societies – can oblige their editors to behave more honorably, and employers can use their leverage over irresponsible authors.

– Bryan Cain
Linacre College, Oxford
bcain@iastate.edu