Many papers are rejected on the basis o grammar skills. In scientific writing should one be given the chance for corrections rather than immediate rejection?
Actually, it is a prerequisit for the manuscript to comply with the language requirements in terms of grammar, sentence structure, spellings etc. So authors need to put a sincere effort to refine the language before submission. However, if the work is worth publishing, the editors need to encourage the authors by giving a chance to revise and resubmit the paper.
You may already be aware of this fact, but there are also many services that edit the grammar/structure of the manuscripts for submission to journals. A nature article linked here (free access) talks about some of these services: http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7324-721a
The proofreaders and copyeditors are responsible for correcting the minor grammatical mistakes. Therefore a paper does not warrant rejection on the basis of minor grammatical issues, however if a journal receives more articles than it can publish, it would have to reject some articles, even on the basis of minor mistakes.
Now when we can get rejected for minor mistakes, does it encourage the researcher in any way........ Most of the journals even don't let you know the reason for rejection. The how this helps the New comers??????
Being the editor at several journals, I can safely say that if you email an editor inquiring as to the reasons behind the rejection, he (or she) would be more than happy to inform you about them. I know that some journals don't send the reviewer's comments with the rejection email but rarely would a journal, if ever, reject your request of seeing them.
As for the other point, about helping the new comers: Try placing yourself in an editor's place. Would you accept a substandard article just to encourage someone, especially when you have good articles from experienced people? I know this sounds rough, but encouraging newcomers is not the priority of an editor. His (or her) priority is to make sure the best articles go out in an issue. There is a limit to how many articles can be published in an issue. Therefore there is always a strict competition. This is just how things work.
That's true sir. But again Journal should go by novelty of the work than the scientific writing aspects, that's what I think. But again as you said Substandard Submissions at not acceptable at any stage, that's also true. Anyways thanks for your views.
I do not think that an editorial rejection can be based solely on minor grammatical mistakes, but it is obvious that manuscripts with substandard language and writing style can not be published either. If i would have to choose between the conditional (i.e. after language revision) acceptance of a top quality manuscript or accepting a mediocre research written in clear English, i would definitely choose the first option.
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