
Dog sits on the editorial boards of seven international medical journals - apsec112
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/the-perth-dog-thats-probably-smarter-than-you/news-story/a4de0d201ce420e0302c69532a399419
======
IIAOPSW
And no one was suspicious when the journal published the article "who's a good
boy?"

Animal employment is surprisingly common. IIRC there's a cat in Japan that is
a railway station master, another cat serves as a town mayor in America, a
monkey was once signal operator for a railroad in India and a physics
professor once put his dog on a paper because the editor complained about
using the royal we despite there only being one author.

I'll look up sources when I'm not on my phone.

~~~
Stratoscope
The original railway station master was Tama, who ran Kishi Station for eight
years with her assistants Miiko (her mother) and Chibi (her sister).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tama_(cat)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tama_\(cat\))

Before passing on a couple of years ago, Tama trained Nitama to perform her
duties, so the station remains in good paws.

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/japan/ar...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/japan/articles/New-
cat-stationmaster-appointed-at-Japanese-train-station/)

~~~
sohkamyung
The Economist ran a wonderful obituary on Tama when she died in 2015 [1]

[1] - [ [http://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21656623-tama-
station...](http://www.economist.com/news/obituary/21656623-tama-
stationmaster-kishi-station-and-vice-president-wakayama-electric-railway-died)
]

~~~
Stratoscope
That really is a wonderful piece of writing, thank you for sharing it!

------
Avshalom
took 24 years but it happened.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_you%27re_a_dog)

~~~
tunnuz
Thank you.

------
spyhi
My takeaway is that "fake it 'till you make it" applies to both dogs and
journals.

Really, though, the problem here is that the "publish or perish" metric for
careers has created demand for willing outlets. It's interesting that this can
create circular authenticity, as was the case here. This seems like it also
might be a driving factor behind the issues reproducing experiments--things
can get published without proper peer review if the journals aren't really in
it for the science.

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a magic bullet here, since it's a
product of a lot of disconnected incentive systems coming together to
accidentally create a monster.

------
flavio81
I love these stories, although they are not new. See, for example, the
renowned painter Pierre Brassau:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Brassau](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Brassau)

"Rolf Anderberg of the Göteborgs-Posten wrote, "Brassau paints with powerful
strokes, but also with clear determination. His brush strokes twist with
furious fastidiousness. Pierre is an artist who performs with the delicacy of
a ballet dancer.""

The problem​ was that Mr. Brassau was a chimpanzee.

Still, we need more dogs like Dr. Olivia Doll, to call mediocre publishing for
what it is.

"Arf", she said*

* Frank Zappa lyric

------
Baeocystin
"Dr. Doll refused to comment unless she was taken for walkies."

Taking a stand on principle, even when under criticism. That's leadership
material, right there.

------
erichurkman
See also:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_with_fraudulen...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_with_fraudulent_diplomas)

~~~
shalmanese
I am very disappointed the See Also section didn't contain "List of animals
with legitimate diplomas".

~~~
vidarh
It did however contain a link to Non-Human Electoral Candidates [1], which
some might think would be just animals. It's not. The best one seems to be a
foot powder that won a mayoral election, but it also includes various attempts
to run assorted puppets a ficus tre, and various other inanimate objects.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-
human_electoral_candidates](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-
human_electoral_candidates)

------
maxxxxx
This is not the first time this is happening:
[http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090401/full/458557b.html](http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090401/full/458557b.html).
I know the owner of that dog.

------
Overtonwindow
Dr. Doll is amazing. 13/10.

------
kerkeslager
If it wasn't clear already, anyone reading this should be persuaded that
journals provide no service. Meanwhile, they hold back real research by
putting their publications behind paywalls and charging exorbitant fees for
them.

Just as a reminder, we don't have to put up with this. There is an
alternative:

[https://sci-hub.io](https://sci-hub.io)

[https://sci-hub.cc](https://sci-hub.cc)

~~~
Fomite
"Journals" are not a monolithic category. Some are poorly edited scams meant
to defraud researchers who don't know better or who are desperate.

There are also some that are a major source of support for professional
organizations.

~~~
godzillabrennus
What kind of support?

All I've heard is that they take free labor and add their brand to it so they
can charge to distribute it.

~~~
probably_wrong
It depends a lot on which discipline are we talking about - a computer science
journal is nothing like a biology one.

Having said that, the requirements to publish in a good journal are quite high
- reviewers will point out mistakes, demand more data if yours is not
convincing enough, point out related literature that you might have missed,
and so on. The journal will also check that the reviewers are not simply
friends of the author. It can take about a year to get a journal article
published.

After seeing some of the stuff that gets submitted (and rejected), I don't
feel I can trust research that has not been peer reviewed. A good journal
ensures that a minimum standard of quality is met, and that I'm not building
my research on lies and fluff pieces.

------
packetized
I view this in the same territory as the earlier article about Daryl Bem and
the replication crisis - scholarly research has bit of housekeeping to do.

------
Pica_soO
"One does not make it this far in a dog-eats-dog world, if one is not willing
to bite, the hand that feeds just as well as the competitors and keeps his
teeths sunken into the steak until the steak is yours. You cant just sit when
told to- you got go out, mark your territory, be allover the competiton.
Sometimes you just got to get your paws dirty and do it. You got to get out
there, playing the game. Dont be a squirrel. The stick wont fetch itself."

Dr. Wuffet, legendary CEO - the management lectures

------
caseysoftware
Did the dog get fees or at least some treats?

------
AJMaxwell
This is funny.... and concerning.

------
joshu
Who's a good boy!!???!!

------
tutufan
That's one real argument against remote work I guess.

~~~
mac01021
Why? If the worker's results are up to your standards, who cares if he's a
dog?

~~~
tutufan
Apparently humor is dead.

------
cmehdy
It truly is a dog-eat-dog world.

