The systematic review that I spent ages writing has been rejected. There was not much in the way of reasons why, just: 'Interesting paper. Would be suited to another journal'. FFS! Sorry, I don't usually swear or even use abbreviations for swear words. I'm well ticked off, though. For a start, I launched a tactical assault on targeting my paper for that journal. I used all of my skills, from selling mobile phones to pasties, to get my pitch just right in the accompanying letter with my article.
And I just can't see why they'd say no? Not out of being arrogant or anything. I spent quite a while going through their archive and I noted that they have covered my area of research in past articles, so why say no to mine? It would have been complimentary. I mean, maybe my field of research just isn't sexy or anything any more and doesn't float many boats. Sorry, this is turning into a drunken ramble induced by ASDA own-brand French Larger (abv. erm.. 2.6% (such a lightweight!)) and listening to Duran Duran (I must really be annoyed to listen to these fellas) :$.
I suppose I'll just have to look for another journal and try and get it in one of those, and in the words of 80's bouffanted Duran Duran (when hair lacquer was in): "I will learn to survive!" Right, better pull my headphones off - this stuff is toxic. Oh, hang on, they're singing Girls on Film...

Hi Wal, clearly they are fools to have passed up this opportunity to fraternize with the Walster. One day, they will learn.

Maybe it's because they've had a spate of looking at this area of research and are doing other stuff now? At least they were positive about the quality of your piece, and it sounds like you have a really good chance of getting it accepted elsewhere. I say keep going, you've done all the work and produced a good article.

Big hugs ((((( ))))))

Hi Walminski,

sorry to hear regarding your paper that was rejected, must be very disappointing.

I must say that your choice of music is, for me, a bit difficult to understand, may be it is because you are desperate due to the bad news related to your paper.

I have had papers rejected as well, it is very annoying, especially if it is not clear why. But with time, as with everything, one gets over it.

Any alternative journals you could send your article to?

Kind regards,

Rick
:-)

Thank you, Rick and Eska, for your comments. I'm looking at getting my paper submitted to another journal that should be 'better suited' today. It's a pain when you put so much effort into something only to get it knocked back, but such is academia. It's put me on a bit of a demotivation spiral, but with so much to do, I'll have to get it sorted.

Rick - a strange taste in music I have, at times, indeed. I feel like I've done something really despicable today, after my Duran Duran binge, and do actually feel guilty and dirty. Look what you made me do, Journal of ..., with your unreasonable rejection. I'll redress the balance by catching up with my Farming Today fascination on Radio 4 - I've got about an hour's worth that I haven't listened to.
:-)

Hey Wal...grrrr, that's so annoying, especially given you have hardly any feedback. I would not take it personally, it seems like there are so many factors that influence whether a paper is accepted- was it rejected straight away by the editor or was it the reviewers who made the comments? There could be any reason aside from the quality of the paper that they didn't take it- political reasons, conflicts with other research that the reviewers are keen on, people on the editorial board, topic not quite the right fit...I wouldn't worry- just stick it somewhere else. My supervisor is at the top of her field and even she had a paper rejected from a rather average journal a few months ago. The paper I am about to submit is a rather opinionated and slightly controversial theoretical piece and I am fully expecting it will clash with other viewpoints and am trying to prepare myself for harsh comments and rejection. But my supervisor is confident that we will find a home for it in the end and I'm sure you will do for your paper too. Good luck with it! KB

Hiya, Keenbean. Thank you for your comment. It was straight rejected by one of the associate editors. It doesn't matter though, as I'm in the process of submitting it to another journal this afternoon. I wish all these journals could come to some kind of unified standard on the precise format for displaying references - they all seem so particular with their commas here, colons there and semi colons up in the air. Lynne Truss would have a field day! :-)

hi wally
you'll be ok, your paper WILL eventually published...
love
satchi

Never fear Wally, you'll get there. I worked on a paper for a year and the journal I had spent all that time writing it for rejected it on the first submission, prob on just reading the abstract I'd imagine! I resubmitted it to another journal and it's possibly the fastest acceptance I've ever heard of (10 weeks from initial submission to final acceptance of corrections) :-)
I was totally gutted that the firs journal hadn't accepted it, but it's not so bad now, I know that it just didn;t suit what they were looking for at the time. So chin up, don't fret about the Duran Duran, I have a bit of an 80's Kylie Minogue session every so often, occasionally interspersed with the Jason Donovan duet Especially for You, we are allowed to do these things in dire times!!

:-( That's frustrating, but also positive in a way.

I work on an engineering education journal, and we reject a fair proportion of submissions - usually if it's rejected by the Editor it doesn't quite meet the scope that the Editor wants for the journal. Has there been a change in Editorial team since papers similar to yours were published? We reject papers which are great on engineering research, but don't bring education into it, or great on engineering and education, just not in the right engineering discipline. The papers themselves could be absolutely perfectly written and immediately publishable, just not quite right for us.

We also have reviewers coming back many weeks down the line rejecting papers with just one or two sentences, and we have to feed that back to the disappointed authors. Preferable an immediate rejection allowing you to look elsewhere (and not criticising the quality of the paper) than one three months from now with little more than "poorly written manuscript"!! Yeah, thanks for that constructive feedback (up)