Not a publication

[na_lon]

Got feedback today for the first manuscript I'd submitted for publication in a peer reviewed journal. The feedback was very helpful, but also negative. They don't want to publish the paper and don't even want to invite resubmission. I'm a little sad about this, but at least some of the points made were also quite nice: apparently the paper was well

Comments

[viala_qilarre]

Bleh. It's a struggle sometimes to keep positive about 'constructive' criticism and easy not to feel disappointed and personally hurt. But I know you'll keep going.

[na_lon]

The criticism I got was actually extremely constructive and useful and very well phrased. I have been given five pages of comments and notes by two different reviewers who are experts in my field of study. And I agree with their comments. So I don't take it at all personally. I think without being able to take on board and think about this sort of input one can never become any better at writing in whatever context.

But while I am not personally hurt, I do feel disappointed. It would have been nice to have at least one publication under my belt.

[viala_qilarre]

Na_lon -- I have just this week submitted a paper to journal #4 after it was rejected without even being sent to review by the first three places I sent it. It happens. There are basically two reasons things get rejected: (i) it's valid but not exciting enough for the journal you submitted to, or (ii) the reviewers reckon it's flawed or incomplete. (Obviously, both (i) and (ii) can apply:). For (i), you gradually move down the journal food-chain, and eventually it finds a home, somewhere in between "Nature" and the "Archives of Ruritanian Biology" :-). For (ii), you can also try and address the referees' comments -- do the control experiment they wanted, or whatever. If they felt the theoretical contribution was "meagre", can you beef it up at all? Far too much work has gone into a submitted paper to just abandon it, if at all avoidable. Do you have colleagues, or maybe an ex-supervisor, who can advise you on a good place to send it next? Even if not, you already know the sort of journals that publish this work (eg, where are the

[na_lon]

Thank you for the moral support and the advice, Neuromancer!

You are, of course, absolutely right about the whole prestigious journal thing, even if I still haven't figured out how one knows whether a journal is prestigious or not, except in very obvious cases! But I can probably ask my supervisor for a suggestion to send it next, and there are a couple of places I might just try. So I have every intention of revamping the paper -- I think the suggestions from the reviewers will probably make it a much stronger paper, and at least it was reviewed and commented upon in the first place.

How are you and your family (!) doing?

N.

[viala_qilarre]

I'm glad to hear you're going to submit it elsewhere! You can get journal impact factors at (eg) http://www.bioreference.net/impact/, and that gives at least an idea of how prestigious each is.

The family (!) and I are doing fine -- just tired (go figure...) and we all have colds, but apart from that, doing very nicely thank you!

Neuromancer