Dear Dr. Jonathan Crane,
Thank you very much for your submission to the Gotham City University Journal of Cognitive Science. Unfortunately I write to inform you that, at this time, the journal cannot accept your article. Pending revisions, however, I am optimistic about the future of your piece.
It should be noted at the outset that your familiarity with the current state of the literature is exceptional, and the unusual erudition of your submission makes for an intriguing read — I am not sure that we have ever published an article which cites the Necronomicon at such length. Likewise your experimental design, and in particular your pioneering work in the field of hallucinogenic pharmaceuticals, shows remarkable innovation. Nonetheless, there are some ethical concerns which we, unhappily, cannot overlook.
As an example, you refer to having conducted experiments in “the forgotten warrens beneath Arkham Asylum,” but it is not clear from the article’s current state whether these ancient tunnels or the “altar of tainted blood” contained therein sit within the institutional purview of the aforementioned psychiatric hospital. Nor is it clear that your studies have been approved by any Institutional Review Board, or as you term them “the bastards, the bastards.”
On a positive note, your clear commitment to obtaining a representative cross-section of Gotham citizens as experimental subjects is to be applauded. The editors are concerned, however, that not all study participants may have signed waivers consenting to participate in a psychological study, particularly given the declaration in your Methods section (p. 4 of the submitted .pdf) that you “took them in the dark, in the dark alone.” In addition, the Journal’s ethics section (attached below) clearly states that all study participants must be anonymized. Should you wish to resubmit, then, please remove all named references to James W. Gordon, though the desciption of the “black and breathless void into which [you] plunged his mind” may stand as written.
Finally, there are some concerns about the experimental rigor on display in Section 3.1 of your submission (subtitled “The Swarming Pit”). While your findings here represent a potentially valuable contribution to the scholarly discussion around in vivo exposure therapy, your conclusion that musophobic study participants who were immersed bodily in “the filth-scummed masses that gnaw and chitter” regressed to a “state of ruin, their idiot mumblings resounding from the walls” does not rise to the level of statistical significance.
As an aside, any allusions in the discussion section to the Batman should be eliminated, despite his apparent role in the premature termination of your study. Your conclusions that “his mask is his face” and “he will bleed, he will weep” ought to be removed as speculative.
Should you choose to make these revisions, the Journal will be pleased to consider your resubmission.
Thank you very much and all best,
Dr. Richard Whitsun
Editor, Gotham City University Journal of Cognitive Science
this is so great