Comment on the Reply on “Theta map: Edge detection in magnetic data” ()

Abstract

In their reply (Wijns et al., 2006) to a discussion (Li, 2006) of their paper (Wijns et al., 2005), stating Wijns et al. (2005) “…do not acknowledge several very relevant works…,” Wijns et al. (2006) state, “Although the works…are indeed relevant to our research, the authors have unfortunately not chosen to make these particular papers available in the scientific literature through publication in refereed journals. We must point out…that extended abstracts are not peer reviewed, and the general academic rule is that they are not suitable for referencing. Many journals reject abstract references outright.” Surprised by the lack of editorial comment on this and having just reread the 1986 SEG Expanded Abstract by Alford (1986), I entered “RM Alford” under “Author” at http://scholar.google.com/advanced_scholar_search and found that this abstract had been cited more than 50 times, including citations in articles in the AAPG Bulletin , CSEG Recorder , Geophysical Journal International , Geophysical Prospecting , GEOPHYSICS, Pure and Applied Geophysics , Revue de l’Institut Francais du Petrole , and Wave Motion . It appears that many of the journals of interest to geophysicists do not follow the “general academic rule” referred to by Wijns et al. (2006).