the truth hurts...so does delivering it

I finally submitted my peer-review for a journal article manuscript that I am the fourth reviewer for. Now, being the fourth one is bad: The first two said "nope, try again", the editor agreed and sent it back to authors, they revised, the editor still does not know what to do with it, so you get it. Ugh.

This one was tough. I hate delivering bad news. I try to be constructive. I have learned so much from those who have reviewed my work. And I always sign my name because I think I should have the balls to own up to my comments and defend them if need be, otherwise I think I would feel like a coward hiding behind anonymous. Kind of like leaving comments on a blog. Anyway, this thing was a piece of crap. I mean, after the first two reads my thoughts were WTF? I wrote a long, detailed review. Here's the summary:

The “crossover” the authors observed really bothers me, as well as the fact that they do not provide their box-counting alorgithm. So I downloaded the images from their website as indicated and encouraged in the paper, and ran box counting myself using Benoit™ - a commercial fractal dimension calculator that uses box counting for mass, information, capacity, and fragmentation dimensions.

I see no crossover, even when using the same settings as the authors indicate. I also see no evidence for multi-fractal behavior, dual-system behavior, or saturation. Thus, I am essentially really confused by the whole thing. If I am confused about this, most other readers would be as well.

I don’t think the paper has any content that is consistent with [insert journal name here] requirements for scientific content, quality, or content. Thus I must recommend another heavy revision, perhaps working with investigators more experienced in this field.

The review was 8 single-spaced pages in Word in arial 10, with 10 figures of my analysis, 5 results files, and lists of additional refs for them to look at. The paper had other issues not mentioned here, but you get the point. So, off I sent it feeling kinda bad, but honest.

After that, I just (now) read the comments of previous reviewers and the authors' responses, which were constructive on the former side, and combative and bitchy on the latter side. Well, now I don't feel so bad.