Does anyone have experience with an Editor who chooses to retract/reject a manuscript AFTER the authors have received a letter that the manuscript was accepted? Aren't the editors bound to their acceptance decision? This assumes that there are not issues of fraud or data fabrication, which seems to be the only justifiable reason to retract an acceptance. Would everyone agree?
It is also possible to simply make an error. If an acceptance letter was sent in error to an author whose paper was not of a suitable standard it would be unreasonable to suggest the journal was bound to publish by virtue of the mistake. Millions of papers are assessed every year, that kind of clerical mistake is bound to happen.
And it is always possible an editor receives additional information. A reviewer might contact them subsequent to their review and say they have spotted a fatal issue.
Or the author might fail to comply with instructions. If an author's paper is accepted but they fail to make changes, provide diagrams in an appropriate format, etc., the journal might not be able to include the paper and it may not be possible to include it in a future issue for practical reasons.
Obviously editors would wish to avoid accepting a paper then having to later reject it but it is not impossible to think of reasons such a course of action might be necessary.
Dear Jordi Honey-Rosés this is certainly a very rare and unusual case which must be condemned. Apart from your personal case, the only reasons I could imagine are serious plagiarism (which should have been checked prior to acceptance of the manuscript) or that someone found out that the manuscript has already been published in another journal. Normally I would expect that all serious editors are bound to their acceptance decision.
For some more information about this, please see this potentially useful link entitled "Post-Acceptance Rejection of a Manuscript"
http://www.wame.org/post-acceptance-rejection-of-a-manuscript
Es este un caso insólito. No he conocido ¨errores administrativos¨ como este querido colega Robert Bracey. Considero atinado aconsejar al colega Jordi Rosados Miel iniciar una queja formal ante las autoridades. Si Ud. tiene la carta de aceptación se debe plantear al editor por vía judicial que lo hacer responsable de cualquier plagio o robo de datos que Ud. ha indicado en su trabajo. Los derechos de autoría lo protegen querido amigo
Dra. Graciela Gómez Aso
It is unusual, but my guess is that there was some sort of administrative or technical error. In the editorial systems, a wrong button can easily be clicked. However, I would expect a clear explanation from the journal editors of what happened (i.e. why did the accept become a reject) - together with an apology.
Coincido con Cecil...un pedido de explicaciones sobre el rechazo y una generosa respuesta...
Dear Jordi Honey-Rosés I recommend to read about this real case of
"Post-Acceptance Rejection of a Manuscript"
https://retractionwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Post-acceptance-rejection-notice_August-17-2015.pdf
Some issues/concerns (whether scientific soundness or conflicts of interest) can be identified following the initial accept decision. It's the responsibility of the reviewers and editors to ensure a proper evaluation of the submission, but authors should disclose everything to avoid such circumstances.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Linguistics
- Philology
- Classical Philology
- Manuscripts