Hi Maria,

i guess the first thing do is to acknowledge that rejection is a full part of academic life, for positions, grants, and papers.

You just need to be mindful of your decisions: aiming a very prestigious journal is always a bet, many good papers get rejected, and there clearly is a random factor in the decision process. I have personally experienced a large variability of situations with my first author papers, being either accepted in the first journal I submitted to (after some revision), or rejected by 9 journals before being finally accepted.

My decision to submit to more or less prestigious journals always depends on

i) time pressure. i usually won’t risk multiple rejections (which can take months or years) if I want to publish soon. E.g. if i know another lab has comparable results and I don’t want to get , or if I’m leaving the lab soon for another position and don’t want to carry this paper with me for too long in my new lab.

ii) the actual added value of the paper, and how much energy I’m willing to put into it. Aiming high means longer delays, probably more intensive revisions, and multiple rejections/reformatting. I remember A paper that I really loved originally, and that I came to hate after submitting/being rejected/reformatting 4 times. ter it got finally accepted, it took me years to be at peace with it and like it again ;)

good luck woth with your submission!

Renaud

Dear Maria

Do not get frustrated. Please try to find out reasons if it is stated. Remember King George and the story of spider. All f us as researchers have to accept rejections! As does failure the stepping stone to success!

Journal space is precious; space in top-of-the-line journals even more so. The large majority of submissions to highly prestigious journals will be rejected. Are the (hopefully) high-quality critical reviews worth it? That's up to you. They could help you in two ways: guiding you in making the article in question stronger and (maybe) suggesting new avenues for you to explore. On the other hand, aside from the humiliation of being rejected again & again you are also delaying the hoped-for publication of your work.

I would suggest identifying journals that are narrower in scope or slightly less glamorous, but are highly relevant to your research - e.g., where some of your reviewed literature has been published (though not the ground-breaking pieces that started the line of studies). Within that universe, aim high first time around, then work your way down.

Alternatively, if time is important (e.g., you're going to be up for tenure, on the job market, or hunting for a grant & need actual publications) you might opt to start off at a level where you think you have a good chance of success. That way you might save months of waiting for rejection, revising for resubmission, etc.

Do not frustrated, keep trying. For first time, you need to send your paper to a good editor, or find a friend whose article published at Q1 or Q2 Journal. And you can also involved more expert as co author to improve your article writing.

Many of colleagues and I were rejected for different articles, multiple times. We had a conversation in the past few months about how many times our articles were rejected. The biggest number was 14 rejections, for a paper published in a top journal at the end.

Working with colleagues, ask for specific advices if not given by the editors and reviewers, and do not give up.

You might also want to post preprint versions so other scientists can help you to improve it.

Thank you all! Yours are very interesting suggestions and I receive them with much gratitude

Hi Maria,

i guess the first thing do is to acknowledge that rejection is a full part of academic life, for positions, grants, and papers.

You just need to be mindful of your decisions: aiming a very prestigious journal is always a bet, many good papers get rejected, and there clearly is a random factor in the decision process. I have personally experienced a large variability of situations with my first author papers, being either accepted in the first journal I submitted to (after some revision), or rejected by 9 journals before being finally accepted.

My decision to submit to more or less prestigious journals always depends on

i) time pressure. i usually won’t risk multiple rejections (which can take months or years) if I want to publish soon. E.g. if i know another lab has comparable results and I don’t want to get , or if I’m leaving the lab soon for another position and don’t want to carry this paper with me for too long in my new lab.

ii) the actual added value of the paper, and how much energy I’m willing to put into it. Aiming high means longer delays, probably more intensive revisions, and multiple rejections/reformatting. I remember A paper that I really loved originally, and that I came to hate after submitting/being rejected/reformatting 4 times. ter it got finally accepted, it took me years to be at peace with it and like it again ;)

good luck woth with your submission!

Renaud