Why Did the Journal Assume I'm a Professor?

[Count Iblis]

When I submitted my article I did not provide any titles. I'm not a Prof, so I was wondering how on Earth they decided that I'm a Prof. The first message I received from the journal was an automatic message and it already put the title Professor before my name.

In communications with the editor I was called Dr.. But when when my article was accepted and transferred to Elsevier I became a Professor yet again.

 

[marlon]

When I submitted my article I did not provide any titles. I'm not a Prof, so I was wondering how on Earth they decided that I'm a Prof. The first message I received from the journal was an automatic message and it already put the title Professor before my name.

In communications with the editor I was called Dr.. But when when my article was accepted and transferred to Elsevier I became a Professor yet again.

Then that must be one dumb journal !

 

[rewebster]

Then that must be one dumb journal !

I submitted 'something' to the NSF and they called me a 'physicist'---go figure!

 

[GCT]

No ... not one dumb journal ... it happened with Nature when Kary Mullis wrote up an article on the nature of time - an article he wrote while he was doped on hallucinogens. Back then he wasn't a phD and he wasn't a physicist yet the journal accredited him on being a physics professor and obviously seemed to have a liking to his "insight" on the nature of time which probably had no scientific value whatsoever ; he won the Nobel Prize in his respective subject in chemistry for PCR. He writes about Nature's stupidity and how they were embarrased by all of this in his autobiography - in fact getting an article in Nature gave him an advantage in his early career.

 

[Moonbear]

It's just an assumption they make to avoid insulting anyone. No grad student has ever been insulted by receiving a letter with "Dr." in front of their name in the salutation, just as no post-doc has ever been insulted by receiving one using the word "Professor." Nothing you send them tells them your title/rank, so they have to guess, and it's better to err too high than address someone as Mr. or Ms. (and even guessing the correct gender can be risky with some names) when they are actually a Dr.

 

[turbo]

Ooh! I'm excited now. My two collaborators and I made a few minor revisions to a paper on M51-type galaxy interactions, as suggested by a referee, and we re-submitted today. Maybe I'll become Dr. Turbo-1. It's a well-respected journal, so I doubt they'll make a Nature-type mistake, though.

 

[rewebster]

It's just an assumption they make to avoid insulting anyone. No grad student has ever been insulted by receiving a letter with "Dr." in front of their name in the salutation, just as no post-doc has ever been insulted by receiving one using the word "Professor." Nothing you send them tells them your title/rank, so they have to guess, and it's better to err too high than address someone as Mr. or Ms. (and even guessing the correct gender can be risky with some names) when they are actually a Dr.

Yep, I got a when I read my letter