Any editor rapidly learns that the authors who submit manuscripts have widely differing ideas about the process of selecting articles for publication. He also soon discovers that the readers have an even wider range of views on the subject. Though trained to take a neutral and objective position when judging manuscripts, when it comes to journal business, the editor is naturally disposed to imagine that all views that do not coincide with his own are wrong.
It is useful, then, to list what are reasonable expectations for author, journal editor, and reader and then to examine them to see what we really know about them and how often, if at all, they are realized.
The author expects that his manuscript will be handled promptly and fast; that it will be judged by several unbiased, expert reviewers whose comments will be passed along to enhance any revision; that the editors will