I Want to Go Home for the New Year
Shen Qi returned to his booth. He had been in the restroom for twenty minutes, and if he didn't return soon, Ou Ye would become suspicious.
"So long?" Ou Ye became suspicious as expected.
"My stomach isn't feeling well," Shen Qi said casually.
"I have medicine for my stomach." Ou Ye took out a strip of pills from her bag and handed it to Shen Qi.
Shen Qi recognized the medicine. He took out two tablets and swallowed them; digestive tablets wouldn't kill him. "Ou Ye, why do you carry so many medicines in your bag?"
Ou Ye replied matter-of-factly, "It's better to be prepared."
That sounded heartbreaking. Shen Qi changed the subject, pointing to his laptop screen. "Continuing on our previous topic, this reviewer made a mistake here. He cited the Dennis-Morley type of conditional assumptions and regularity to analyze the convergence speed of this algorithm. Obviously, this logic is flawed and has loopholes. Ou Ye, you must remember this: in the future, when writing similar papers, never make this kind of logical error."
"Yes, I've got it." Ou Ye nodded, quickly digesting and absorbing Shen Qi's words of experience.
Shen Qi used the reviewers' first draft comments as a negative example for him and Ou Ye to learn from.
Of course, Shen Qi had no idea that the reviewer was Cadre Liu from the Chinese Mathematical Society, an old acquaintance of his.
Then Shen Qi studied Professor Lu's research topic, Ou Ye continued to analyze the research topic that Shen Qi had assigned to her.
They spent the entire day in the coffee shop, having all three meals there.
Professor Lu's topic was even more difficult. Shen Qi for a long time before finally deciding on the topic title. "A Class of Bounded Strong Singular Integral Operator Along Homogeneous Curves". It was worth 15 math calculus credits and could not be taken lightly.
Recently, many mathematicians at home and abroad have written papers on this topic. Boundedness on amplitude-modulated spaces is a classic research direction, and new schools of thought have emerged in the 21st century.
Americans, French, British, Germans, Japanese, students from Princeton, École Normale Supérieure in ENS Paris and Oxford, Cambridge University and Cologne, Todai University and Waseda University... Shen Qi studied the latest developments in this research direction worldwide, and he felt that he was engaged in an international work.
Now that they're starting to go international, Shen Qi can't afford to waste too much energy on these small domestic matters. He feels that his paper, "Analysis of Generalized Nonlinear Complementary Problems with Linear Inequality Constraints," is fine. He's already given clear feedback, and truly capable experts will surely be impressed.
At the headquarters of the Chinese Mathematical Society, Cadre Liu worked until 9 p. m. to complete the second draft of his review comments on Shen Qi's paper, a full eight pages long. Cadre Liu really went all out.
The next morning, Xu Weini, the editor of the Mathematical Herald, saw the second draft of the review comments sent by Cadre Liu.
Cadre Liu was serious. He was conveying the message between the lines: "I am an expert, an expert from the Chinese Mathematical Society. The author must revise the paper according to my suggestions, otherwise it will not pass my review!"
"Will this ever end? I want to go home for Chinese New Year!" Xu Weini was on the verge of tears.
As the year draws to a close, Editor-in-Chief Nian Ruiming stated that papers entering the peer review stage must be finalized as soon as possible. The final review by the editorial board can be postponed until after the new year, but authors must be given an explanation before the end of the year. We must not let authors feel that * Mathematical Herald * is inefficient and procrastinating, dragging out a paper for two years. We are the industry benchmark.
Xu Weini has seen plenty of instances where authors and reviewers have a direct confrontation.
After a round of direct criticism, most authors choose to compromise, obey the reviewers' criticisms, and revise as they see fit, until the reviewers are satisfied.
After all, many authors write papers with specific purposes in mind, such as for promotions or to complete assignments, and they can't afford to delay. They don't care how badly the paper is revised, even if it's insincere or deviates from the original intention, as long as it can be published as soon as possible.
There are also a few authors who are very arrogant and individualistic. Laozi, claiming they are not wrong and that they are stating the truth, a truth that applies to the entire universe.
But the result is often that these brilliant authors' papers are delayed for more than a year, until the authors almost forget about them, and the papers still haven't been published. That's just how long the review process for universal truths is; it's standard practice.
Shen Qi is a freshman and not yet at the stage of applying for professional titles. The college would not assign a number of papers to a freshman. Only after receiving a salary from Yanda University and becoming a formal faculty member of Yanda University would he be obligated to fulfill the tasks assigned by the university and the college.
Xu Weini suddenly realized that Shen Qi was not writing the thesis for professional title or to complete an assignment; this junior's only purpose was to show off.
"Please stop pretending, Junior Brother Shen! I'm going back to my hometown for the Chinese New Year. I'll be returning the day after tomorrow!" Xu Weini picked up her phone and checked her flight information again. Yes, it was a flight the day after tomorrow morning.
With a praying heart, pure and expectant, Xu Weini sent Cadre Liu's second version of review comments to Shen Qi's email.
Shen Qi, just give in. Expert Liu's opinion is very insightful. Junior brother, can't you be a little more humble? Are you going to keep putting on this act from this year until next? If you keep acting like this for the whole new year, am I supposed to give you a red envelope?
Coordinating this process was no easy task, and Xu Weini could only hope that Liu's second draft of the opinion would convince Shen Qi so that he could finalize the draft quickly and complete the peer review process before the end of the year.
However, the way the math department's "King of Show Offs" behaves is difficult for ordinary people to fathom.
Back in that same coffee shop, Shen Qi studied Cadre Liu's second draft of opinions very carefully. He felt that this expert had quite a temper.
The previous reviewers were just going through the motions, but this reviewer was as stubborn as a bull.
This is not a question about the reviewer's academic level; an amateur could not write such a review.
Shen Qi had a premonition that this reviewer must be from Fudan University. That's right, he was targeting me, blatantly targeting me.
Based on the strict complementarity condition, I obtained that the Lagrange multipliers satisfy μi > 0. Is this incorrect?
Why are you being so aggressive, expert, insisting that I modify it to make F and G continuously differentiable on R^n?
"To be honest, this reviewer is simply unreasonable," Shen Qi said to Ou Ye.
"To be honest, this part makes sense." Ou Ye and Shen Qi studied the second version of the review comments from Cadre Liu together. She couldn't offer an overall opinion on the whole text, but she had her own insights into certain parts.
Ou Ye meant that in the second draft of Cadre Liu's opinion, there was a very reasonable proof, namely Cadre Liu's proof that the BD-regularity condition holds at the zero point of H.
"Wow, you've made rapid progress, Ou Ye." Shen Qi was both surprised and delighted. Ou Ye was improving every day. At least she could analyze which expert opinions were reasonable and which were unreasonable, instead of blindly agreeing or disagreeing.
Ou Ye: "I learned it from you."
"Ou Ye, you've been researching this paper, 'Analysis of Generalized Nonlinear Complementarity Problems with Linear Inequality Constraints,' for a while now. The rest of the work is up to you. I'll give you my work email account and password; you can contact the editor of the * Mathematical Herald * and get this paper sorted out. If you manage to get it done, we'll still co-author it," Shen Qi said.
Ou Ye loves co-authorship, but she also knows that the master author behind the editor is the reviewer, and the editor is just an intermediary who relays information.
Shen Qi asked Ou Ye to take over his work and work closely with the reviewers, but Ou Ye still felt pressured. "I'm afraid I won't be able to handle it."
"It's alright. Just use this expert as practice. He's very likely a math professor from Fudan University, and he'll be giving you free lectures and sharing his academic experience—a rare opportunity. If you really can't handle it, Ou Ye, I'll step in. That's settled then. I need to work on international projects; I don't have time for domestic business."
Shen Qi threw himself into the international research project, "A Class of Bounded Analysis of Strong Singular Integral Operator Along Homogeneous Curves," leaving all domestic business to Ou Ye.
So Ou Ye began drafting the second version of the author's feedback. Shen Qi told her to stick to it to the end, so she did.
It was time for her daily medication. Ou Ye took two pills and entered "fight to the death" mode, full of fighting spirit.
I'm begging for monthly votes at this late hour!!!