Manuscript rejections: why and what can we do about it

Fan Lee

Abstract

Rejection is the norm in academic publishing. Even researchers at the top of their fields have experience constant rejections for proposals and submitted research articles. Several peer-reviewed studies have investigated the reasons that journals reject papers and the most common reasons include (but are not limited to): a lack of originality, novelty, or significance; inappropriate match between the study and journal, inadequate preparation of the manuscript. Some reasons for rejected manuscripts are however not always related to manuscript quality, and these include factors such as space constraints, the quality and experiences of peer reviewers, as well as the appropriateness of the specific volume for submission. Whatever the reasons are, carefully reading the rejection email you received is the first step. The letter may explain generally and specifically which parts of your manuscript were not accepted and why the overall quality of the manuscript did not meet the standards of the specific journal. Consultations with  your co-authors on the appropriate revisions  are thus vital to more thoroughly make the manuscript more readable and suitable for re-submission or submission to a more appropriate journal.