Trophy papers

Getting a paper into certain journals is good for one's career. These papers usually represent impressive and important work. It seems that many more such manuscripts are produced than the number that can be published in high-profile journals, such as Nature. It's probably not a bad thing to submit a manuscript to a high-profile journal if you think you have a chance there, but these attempts often generate considerable frustration, for reasons ranging from peculiar formatting requirements to rejection without peer review. Some researchers believe in a piece of work so much that they are not deterred by these frustrations and keep submitting to one high-profile journal after another. This enthusiasm is admirable, but if repeated attempts fail, then the level of frustration can become rather high because of the wasted effort. I wonder how others handle this sort of situation. Do you put more work into the project? Do you submit to an open-access journal? Do you move on to the next desirable target journal and take on the significant non-scientific work, such as figure layout and reference formatting, which a manuscript revision can sometimes entail? Do you wonder if the manuscript is fatally flawed because of the initial attempt to present the findings in a highly concise format? Please share your thoughts and experiences. Should we even be trying to do more than simply sharing our findings?

Extreme writing

Out of the blue one day, Pieter Swart stopped by my office, and for some reason, the conversation turned to extreme programming, a practice that Pieter and his colleagues used in their development of NetworkX. One aspect of extreme programming is programming in pairs, or pair programming. Two programmers sit at one workstation. One, the driver, types. The other, the observer, reviews what is typed. Because of Pieter's enthusiasm, I tried it, but for writing, not programming. It turns out that pair writing works very well, at least for me with certain writing partners. If you've ever had writer's block, extreme writing will cure it. If you're the observer, you're off the hook - you just need to give your attention to what's being typed. If you're the driver, a pause will usually lead immediately to a discussion with the observer and a quick return to steady progress, or the observer will just deliver a coup de grace and take over the keyboard. Changing roles occurs frequently. If you haven't tried pair writing, give it a try. It helps to work with a large monitor in a comfortable but isolated and confined environment (to limit the possibilities of escape), where loud conversation will not disturb anyone.