Wednesday, 8 August 2018

publications - During review, I found a superior solution. What now?


I received a journal paper for a review. The paper suggests a solution to an important problem, but the solution is very complicated and has mediocre performance. While reading the paper, I thought of a different solution, which is much simpler and has better performance (to give some scale: their solution is 1 page to write and 5 pages to prove; my solution is 5 lines to write and half a page to prove).


What should I do now?


A. Write my solution in the review, hoping the authors will remember to "thank the anonymous reviewer"?


B. Recommend that the paper published as is, then write a paper of my own with my improved solution?


C. Something else?


EDIT: Before I found the superior solution, I thought of recommending "resubmit with major revision", with the reasons that I mentioned above: your solution is too complicated and its performance is too weak.


However, now I am not sure it is the good course of action. A major revision may take a long time. The authors might even decide to delay or stop working on the paper without telling the editor (or me). Meanwhile, I will have to postpone the publishing of the superior solution for an indefinite amount of time. What do you think?




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