Comments by George Miley in Fusion Technology 38, iii (November 2000)

(Excerpt)

“ It is with deep sadness that I retire in June 2001 as editor of Fusion Technology (FT). Despite the extensive time involvement, I have immensely enjoyed serving as editor. Discussions with authors and reviewers were continuously stimulating, and I always enjoyed a feeling of satisfaction from providing this service to the fusion community and to the American Nuclear Society (ANS). There were, of course, a few downsides, largely concerned with occasional financial struggles, debates over rejected manuscripts, and continued attempts to control paper backlogs that slowly oscillated back and forth from being either too large or too small as circumstances in the fusion community changed.”

“Inclusion of papers on “cold fusion” (or anomalous nuclear reactions in solids) in FT has been one of the more controversial decisions I made as editor of FT. Rather than rehash the issues involved, I would simply repeat my view expressed in an early preface that it is the “responsibility of a journal to publish scientific work related to its field of coverage that can pass through peer reviews.” Indeed, all papers on this topic in FT have undergone a rigorous peer review. In the early years (1987- 1990) following Pons and Fleischmann’s original announcement, reviewers ensured that the papers were technically sound but allowed speculations about mechanisms since the field was so new. However, starting in 1990, as the field matured, review standards reverted to the same guidelines as other papers in FT. Further, based on discussions in the FT Editorial Advisory Committee, an additional reviewer from outside the “cold fusion community” was typically added on these manuscripts. Readers who are interested in more detail about events during this period from my point of view as an editor are referred to an article titled “Some Personal Reflections on Scientific Ethics and the Cold Fusion ‘Episode’” that I prepared for a fall issue of the Journal on Accountability in Research’ Policies and Quality Assurance, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2000).”