Moustafa - your strategy is a good one. However, I doubt that would be the case. Unless it is a very 'niche' topic and discipline - most editors of established journals don't know each other. The subsequent editors would not have access to your previous submission history. That would be against publishing codes and ethics. You may have already done so already - but the more that one follows 'the rules of the publishing game', the higher the likelihood of success. It means carefully selecting journals. The attached chapter, which has many generic priniciples, may assist.

I'll have to disagree with Dean on this occasion. I am not sure of the exact structure of the editorial teams at Elsevier, but if they have an in-house team that screens manuscripts and manages the peer-review process, they would have access to a database of all submissions and managing editors would have access to it. What Dean might be referring to is editors that are also academics, so not working in-house. They should not have access to previous submissions at other journals.

When I worked in-house at a major publisher, almost as big as Elsevier, we had access to all previous submissions and editor decisions. It shouldn't influence the decision of an editor but you are correct in assuming that it can, especially if it is just a desk rejection without peer review reports. But sometimes it can be beneficial and speed up publication if the editor uses a previous report.

My recommendation is to focus on the cover letter to let the editor know why the journal is suitable. If you submit the same paper and the same cover letter to 3 different journals you are more likely to get rejected. There must be a reason why you chose the journal. Spell this out in the cover letter. Don't keep it generic. Identify recent papers published by the same journal and related to your work. How is your paper is different/better? If you make the editor's job easier, you are more likely to get your paper sent for peer-review.

I agree with Zoran Dinev in context of writing the cover letter. Also, please read carefully the scope and objectives of the journal. Inmost of the cases papers are rejected for scope mismatch issue.