Do you remember the previous post why are your journal articles rejected? Although the feeling of heartwarming when receiving a rejection letter from the editor or reviewer of the article, do not drag on in sadness. After all, the world will not collapse just because our journal article was refusal by the editor or reviewer of the journal – life must go on! When you receive a stinging email, don’t panic. It is best to calm down the emotions and thoughts. The wise step is to read the reasons for the rejection carefully and forget for a moment for a few days.
Three things you need to consider. First, remember that you are not alone. Most senior writers have accepted the rejection of the article. Second, allow yourself to feel sad, angry and depressed. It is humane, but do not drag on lamenting the sadness of the fate of the article. Third, after your anger and sadness subside, take a deep breath and start rereading the reasons for rejection calmly. When the psychological condition begins to calm down, it’s time for you to decide how the fate of the rejected article continues. Here are the tips you should take when the article is rejected:
First, forget about the article. Studies show that one-third of authors who experience article suppression not only forget the article, but all the results of the research that is the basis of article writing. Don’t let that happen to you! If your article is rejected when you first submit it to the journal, it’s good to send the article to another journal, of course there are improvement efforts according to the comments from the editor or reviewer before. If two or more journals have rejected your article, it’s time to ignore the article. Another condition for forgetting the article is when the editor or reviewer raises objections to the methodology, theoretical approach, or arguments that are very serious in the letter of condemnation and you yourself as the author are convinced that the opinion of the editor or reviewer is correct.
Second, submit the article without revision to another journal. Some authors never revise their articles until they are rejected by at least three different journals. Editors or reviewers also have an element of subjectivity. Sometimes one editor with another editor has a different understanding in assessing an article. This is natural because of differences in experience and into scientific studies. In the field of humanities for example, authors often prepare three files with different email destination addresses, each for a different journal, so that if the article is rejected by the first or second journal, they immediately send it to the next journal. If the author has received three rejections, carefully read the editor’s comments. I wonder if there is an agreement between them. If there is, immediately make revisions as they wish. However, revising rejected articles will increase the chances of being accepted in other journals.
Third, correct the article and send it to another journal. Some authors try to use the recommendation of the reviewer to revise the article whenever it is rejected. Thus, they can send revised articles to other journals. There is nothing wrong with this action, as long as you don’t spend time just revising and you only respond to criticisms that you agree with. The purpose of peer review is actually to provide good recommendations so that the quality of the article increases.
Fourth, should I send articles to a better journal? Deciding which journal to resubmit articles is another important decision. The question is, do I send a revised article to a better journal? According to some studies, authors generally send rejected articles to less prestigious journals. But other studies have shown that many authors send rejected articles to equivalent journals, and some submit them to better journals. This depends on how you rate the revised article. If you feel confident about the revision, you can send it to an equivalent journal. But keep in mind, if you revise and re-rim the article to another journal, the chances of being published are very high. Some studies show that at least 20 percent of published articles have previously been rejected by other journals. Another study found that about 1 percent of published articles were rejected by four or more journals before finally being accepted for publication.
Fifth, object to the rejection and try to resubmit the article to a journal that has refused. Authors sometimes feel reviewers or editors are making cruel, unfair, or outrageous comments. The author has the right to object. Of course, everyone has the right to speak the truth. If you want to exercise that right, use it. All editors have received one or two letters of objection from authors over their decisions or reviewer reports. Make sure that your protest letter is not insulting and ask a friend or colleague to edit it for help. But you need to realize that writing such a letter, will not change anything. Editors will still argue that their assessment has been done objectively. They tend to think that the real problem lies in the author’s expectations. Remember, writing a protest letter is time consuming, you can use that time to submit your work to other journals. If you send a protest to the journal editor, you may find it awkward to submit another article to the journal later. Fortunately, the desire to protest journal editors’ decisions tends to diminish as experience in publishing journal articles increases.
Sixth, appeal the decision against the ban. Most reputable journals have a formal appeals process. They have an independent board. A study of the appeals process against the Journal of the American Sociological Review found that only 13 percent of appeals were successful. The lack of a percentage of appeal success, gives the author a lesson that the chances of publication of the article are higher when the article is sent to another journal.
Seventh, ask other reviewers to reassess. The author may convince editors who have rejected your article to submit it to other reviewers. If your argument is accepted by the editor, then the editor will send the article to another reviewer. It could be another reviewer appointed, accepting your article for publication. Remember when applying for a replacement reviewer, make an argument professionally and do not insult the reviewer beforehand. If indeed the previous reviewer gave a recommendation for improvement, make improvements as requested.
In the end, the continuation of the fate of the rejected article depends largely on your choice. Will you continue to submit articles by following the tips and tricks as described earlier? Or drag on in grief and do nothing about the fate of your article?
