Monday, February 25, 2008

JUST SAY NO to methods-at-the-end journals

At least that's what more than 70% of our poll respondents said when asked if they like the methods-last format. Of course, our sample of Talking Brains readers may not be entirely unbiased, but it doesn't matter because... their right.

Methods at the end makes no sense. What is the argument for organizing articles this way? Well, some people don't read the methods, and it is very inconvenient to flip a page or two to get past them, so let's put them at the end. Seriously? Just leave the article in its proper order for those of us who want to read the whole article, and if someone wants to skip the methods, a simple flip is all is takes.

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