scolded!

I recently received a request for refereeing a paper for a journal I had never heard of, in a field far, far away from my own, with an abstract that indicated little innovation beyond transferring a by now standard technique to this very field. Given the volume of such requests, I immediately declined and received the scolding and peeved reply, as of below, from said journal editor! (The above picture is from Bayesian Core, not from the paper submitted.)

Invited Reviewer:

Thank you for letting us know that you are not willing to review the submission, “Bayesian Analysis of Mixtures with an Unknown Number of Components &tc,” for Journal of Some Socio-Economics Issues®.

It is most unfortunate that you did not choose to make your impression that “the contents sound very standard given the existing literature” known to the author/s on behalf of the Journal.  It would certainly have aided them in the longer run.
We also find it rather extraordinary for a potential reviewer to turn down an invitation “because there is little possibility I [will] ever publish in your journal”.  So much for fostering your discipline and academic excellence outside of a specific circle of publications … 

Best regards,

The editor

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