Rachelle Hollander

I believe the proposed course of action is not acceptable because it's dishonest. Thus, the burden is on the authors to tell us why it should be okay. The rationale is that one of the journal co-editors may be biased. Of course, if she is or is likely to be perceived to be biased, she should recuse herself from the review process. But independently of relying on that editor's good sense, could not the authors request that be done? Generally that's a possibility. Perhaps Candice is the most expert in the topic of the submission, but editors often handle submissions in which they are not experts. So I'd advise the authors to submit honestly and ask that Candice not undertake the oversight or process of reviewing the article. To proceed in this manner is a little chancy, but so is the proposed solution, which may wind up creating more untoward consequences.