That's an awesome piece of detective work Red! There can be all...

That's an awesome piece of detective work Red!

There can be all kinds of pathways through to publication (or rejection). Sometimes the peer reviewers will have feedback that requires work to resolve. It depends on the waiting list. There can also be some editorial decisions made about priorities. Ground-breaking work, time-sensitive findings, work where it is known that priority (i.e. getting published earlier) is important.

There's every possibility that Carrick is miffed with us for being at the Cambridge conference last year, which effectively forced him into making a public statement. I suspect that he didn't intend for that to happen, and is now making extra rigorous efforts to distance himself from any potential allegations that we commissioned the study, or that we have had any influence over its conduct or its findings.

We've been push away past arm's length to beyond the proverbial barge-pole distance!

At least it'll be hard for anybody to argue that the study wasn't independent.