I recently received a Decision letter from a Journal that had missing reviewer recommendations from Reviewer 1 to 3. Reviewer 4 is the only one who had a decision recommendation for my paper and they were Rejecting my paper. The other 3 reviewers had relatively good comments but their decision recommendation was hidden or not in the decision letter. Is this normal or is something fishy? My paper was rejected outright but the other 3 reviewers had decent comments. Is it Professional for an Editor to hide the decision recommendations of Reviewers that are positive about the paper?
Hi Bhekisizwe,
While I do not know the reasons why (each journal can have its own ways of provided feedback - maybe 4 sets of comments and one overall decision?), I think it would be reasonable for you to ask about this, by framing it as an 'opportunity for you to learn'.
If I was unclear about the feedback I received from a journal, firstly, I would thank them for their time and the useful feedback. Then I would state that in my desire to learn from their feedback, I did have a question. Something like "the feedback from three of the four reviewers seemed positive, but I cannot see their decision on the form I have received. Did the reject the paper also?"
I think most people involved with research journals will respond to politely worded questions!
Dear Bhekisizwe, what Luke raises is a good recommendation that can help know other reviewers' feedback. In any case, you should think that the editors may have many reasons to reject the article even with the positive assessment of some reviewers.
Here are some examples:
-The journal has received many articles and must select even among those that have received the reviewers' approval.
-Not all reviewers have the same in-depth knowledge of both the editorial line and the specific topic, so editors rely more on the assessment of some reviewers over others.
-Only one reviewer has detected a problem in the article. Even if other reviewers assessed it positively, that reviewer's opinion would be sufficient to highlight the problem of the article.
The world of publishing is fierce. It is a selective model, not always fair, that forces many interesting papers to be discarded.
Cheer up, I am sure that with some small improvement you will see your article published in another journal.
Dear Bhekisizwe,
I agree with Alfonso. Sometimes, the publishing world is very selective and not always fair.
Good luck with your research.
Best wishes,
Gustavo.
My question is, why hide the recommendations of those with positive comments and only show the one with negative? Just because someone comes up with negative reviews does not mean their view is correct. The 4th reviewer showed lack of understanding of fundamentals. Why hide the decision recommendation from the reviewers with positive comments?
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