Science Publish and Perish I’m the editor in chief of a scientific journal. There’s a disastrous imbalance happening with the labor around manuscripts. Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Olga Yastremska/iStock/Getty Images Plus and wabeno/iStock/Getty Images Plus. Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Recently, an ordinary manuscript landed on my desk. Nothing flashy—the solid work that represents another brick in the wall of science. The hard part wasn’t deciding whether it belonged in a journal that I oversee as editor in chief. The hard part was finding anyone willing to review it. After a month of emails, I managed to uncover two helpful souls. That experience is no longer unusual. Peer review—the quiet process in which independent experts vet scientific work—is the quality filter behind safe medicines, infrastructure standards, and daily technologies.…