I submitted this manuscript in quadruplicate, in the proper format to Stephen Harnad at Behavioral & Brain Sciences (BBS) September 22 2000. I never received an acknowledgement of receipt, or acceptance, or rejection, except this little comment from Phineas A. De Thornley Head, also of BBS, in correspondance with regard to my other paper submitted to BBS. Phineas says...

"in re your other paper, i have spoken with the editor and he feels that as competition for space in bbs pages is so strong he can only fairly afford one refereeing per author at a time. however, he would be happy to see it submitted to psycholoquy, bbs' electronic sister journal -- and that of course does not rule out its subsequent submission to bbs in the future."

So is this an official policy of BBS that only one paper is permitted per author at a time? I see no mention of it in the submission guidelines. Or is this an informal policy instituted specifically for my benefit? And is this curt email notification from Phineas A. De Thornley Head all I am to expect as an official response from BBS for the submission of my paper?

I have decided not to press the matter until my first paper is resolved with them. In the meantime the status of this paper is in limbo, neither accepted, nor rejected, just ignored.

Update March 2004: I resubmitted this paper after the other paper was finally published, four and a half years later! Only to get it Rejected Without Review!