'I doubt it' said the carpenter
Abstract
Editorial'I doubt it' said the carpenter SAGE Publications, Inc.1995DOI: 10.1177/026461969501300301 When writing editorial columns there is always a temptation, usually too strong for clergymen and disc jockeys to resist, to make spurious links. As the editorial and commissioning policies of the Journal develop, you can expect the views in the Editorial to bear some relationship to the rest of its content but, for now at least, the self-standing short essay will have to suffice; and what better subject than the business of the Journal itself, the promotion and publication of research, reporting and comment. Ever since reading my first academic research papers, I have been haunted by the ruminations of Lewis Carroll's Walrus and Carpenter: "if seven maids with seven mops swept it for half a year, do you suppose", the Walrus said, "that they would get it clear?" ' which is not dissimilar to the kind of research that says: 'if seven girls with seven bricks walk seven yards then, all things being equal, the brightest and best co-ordinated will move most quickly and retain the most bricks'. So far so good; so what? This is not to dismiss research into motor skills and kinetic aplomb. The