HOW TO AVOID REJECTION OF RESEARCH PAPER BY JOURNALS

Abstract

Every day, many individuals approach various journals to get their work published. Publishing one's scientific work in a renowned journal provides authenticity and gives credit to the author. Some get accepted at the first go, many require multiple iterations, while a lot many face rejections. Rejection of research papers is a most common process in these days. Authors gather input from various collaborators, colleagues, fellow authors, and peer reviewers. Scientific research and subsequent publishing is an iterative process. First manuscripts are designed and written, then they are revised and edited several times. In a perfect world, this carefully designed product would be immediately ready to publish. Yet, evidence suggests that 21% of papers are rejected without review, at first glance, and approximately 40% of papers are rejected after peer review.

Full text

© 2019 IJRAR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 1 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)
IJRAR19J3700
International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org
732
HOW TO AVOID REJECTION OF RESEARCH
PAPER BY JOURNALS
* Dr T. Siva Prathap, # Dr Mohd Akhter Ali, @ M. Kamraju $ Dr. A Bala Kishan
*# Assistant Professor, @ Research Scholar $ Professor
* Department of Earth Sciences #@ $ Department of Geography
*Yogi Vemana University, #$ Osmania University, @ Centre for Economic and Social Studies
Hyderabad, Telangana
Abstract
Every day, many individuals approach various journals to get their work published. Publishing one’s
scientific work in a renowned journal provides authenticity and gives credit to the author. Some get accepted
at the first go, many require multiple iterations, while a lot many face rejections. Rejection of research papers
is a most common process in these days. Authors gather input from various collaborators, colleagues, fellow
authors, and peer reviewers. Scientific research and subsequent publishing is an iterative process. First
manuscripts are designed and written, then they are revised and edited several times. In a perfect world, this
carefully designed product would be immediately ready to publish. Yet, evidence suggests that 21% of papers
are rejected without review, at first glance, and approximately 40% of papers are rejected after peer review.
Introduction
This paper focuses on the common reasons why academic papers are rejected by journal editor.
Manuscript rejection is a hurting and a disappointing experience especially when it is repeated several times.
Colleges and universities always evaluate and promote the academic staff based on their number of
publications. Manuscript rejection represents a major barrier for junior staff to get promoted and develop
their carrier especially that the rates of manuscripts’ rejection in the high impact journals reach as much as
90%. An author who target publication in high prestigious journals may spend many years to publish just
small parts of his research findings. This had lead many of the researchers and academic staff particularly in
developing countries to publish their studies in local and low ranked journals. Several studies attempted to
address the reasons of manuscript rejection by Science journals. Studying this issue or writing about it would
help beginners who seek publishing their data but face difficulties solve the problems of rejection and getting
their work published in a reasonable time frame. Also, appreciating that manuscript rejection is a common
occurrence would help relieving the symptoms of frustration and reduce feelings of disappointment.
Common reasons included lack of the importance and relevance of the subject matter; lack of consistency
between study design, results, and conclusions; lack of originality; and inappropriate, questionable or flawed
methodology. In many situations different journals send the same manuscript to the same reviewers and
unless a significant change in the manuscript has been made, reviewers would recommend “rejection” again.
This explains partially the experiences of frequent rejections of a particular manuscript when an author keeps
resubmitting it to several journals as it was written firstly and without making any effort to modify it.

© 2019 IJRAR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 1 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)
IJRAR19J3700
International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org
733
Objectives:
• The main objective of this paper is to study the reasons of rejection of research paper.
• To study the overall criteria of research paper acceptance.
• To study the problem’s of research.
Methodology:
For this paper data is mainly taken from secondary sources such as books, journals, newspaper and internet.
The primary data is from the viewpoints of senior professor of the universities, researchers of institutes and
private organizations.
WHY REJECTION?
There are many reasons why a paper may not be accepted, data plagiarism is just one of the common
concerns. There are no shortcuts to success. To prepare a noteworthy paper one must put in a lot of effort
initially behind the work itself and then behind the paper writing process. As a manuscript is getting rejected
several times data becomes out-of-date. This provides another reason to reviewers and editors for rejection.
Rejection because the data is getting out-of-date occurs in researches related to some fields such as
epidemiology and clinical works and those studies which are survey based but may not be seen in laboratory-
based researches as such data can be published at any time as long as there is an interest in the findings.
However, there is some evidence that not all rejected manuscripts are of a poor quality. According to Woolley
& Barron, at least 50% of rejected manuscripts are published within 2 years after being rejected although
this period may reach up-to 5 years. According to Calcagno and associates, published papers that have a
history of prior rejection are cited more than those which do not have such history. This supports the notion
that many rejected papers were actually good or at least having potentiality to become so. Then, why some
good papers are getting rejected? Other factors beyond those identified by previous studies might be playing
role in the rejection of the good work. The present paper discusses various aspects related to the rejection of
good quality manuscripts and describes efforts been made by some Science and social studies journals to
reduce the loss in the scientifically sound works due to rejection.
There are multiple criteria checked by individual journals, a few of which have been discussed below.
1. Journal scope does not include the concerned work.
It is essential to approach a journal which publishes your line of work. For example, if you have
worked on an antibiotic characterization and have approached an Ecology based journal, the chances
are high that it gets rejected at the first screening itself. It is very important that the subject line of
your work matches the ideology of the journal.
2. Insufficient problem statement.

© 2019 IJRAR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 1 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)
IJRAR19J3700
International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org
734
Once you have chosen the appropriate journal, they will check whether you have chosen a strong
problem statement. For example, if you have established a new protein, it is essential for you to
provide the structure, characteristics, interaction data, and signaling junctions. Again, rejections may
happen, if you have just chosen to provide the name of the protein and have not given any details on
what role it has to play in cell signaling or what function it may have in the body. These are weak
literature with not much depth in them.
The objective of your research must be clearly identifiable in the abstract itself and must be clearly
concluded in your work. Partially done experiments with no conclusive proof may not be accepted.
3. Data insufficiency.
Any experiments listed must be reproducible and must be proved by multiple trials. The experiments
which have been concluded by more than one technique offering the same result will have more
credibility. It is critical for you to identify how much data you want to publish in your work. You can
provide details under a separate header of Methods or Experiments in your article. Your research and
its conclusion must be backed with scientific experiments and cannot be concluded based on
hypothesis or rough estimations.
In case of statistical analysis have been done, they must be validated to the most appropriate values
using statistical techniques like chi-square etc. Ensure you use the correct statistical method for
analysis and that the method is listed in details. Never draw conclusions based on arbitrary or variable
data. Inconsistency in your work and assumption can lead to rejection.
4. Clarity of images and optimized techniques
If you provide a western blot, make sure the wells, bands are clearly visible. Never edit any real-time
image taken as that can be considered plagiarism. If the image has a lot of dirt or fragments or huge
smears visible, it may indicate that your method had a lot of manual errors or your sample used during
the process was not pure and stable.
Make sure you have well optimized your instruments before you begin your work and all these
optimizations and controls used must be clearly listed in your methodology.
5. Use of obsolete methods
With modern day technologies advancing, more accurate and error-free techniques are developed.
Conducting research using them is far more beneficial as a criterion for article acceptance. In some
cases, if there are far better and accurate techniques available, a journal may reject your research as
an outdated technique.
6. Writing ability

© 2019 IJRAR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 1 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)
IJRAR19J3700
International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org
735
If you have chosen a very complicated aim and are not able to convey the steps in a simplified legible
manner, it may lead to rejection of your work. You may have taken time to understand the problem
statement, decipher it and analyze it, but your presentation must be simple for helping others
understand. Since maximum journals accept the English language for their content, proofread your
manuscript to avoid confusion due to grammatical errors. Always remember the journal targets a
broad range audience; hence frame your work accordingly.
7. Data is biased
Journal reviewers and editors can identify if your results or assumptions seem manipulated or
forcefully derived. Hence, do not include any data bias. Have sufficient data to establish and support
each statement that you claim in the paper. In case you obtain any data contradicting your work, try
to provide the reasons or possibilities for the same. In case there are too many contradictions,
reconsider your methodology or optimize your techniques better. Where sampling is involved, make
sure that there are sufficient test samples and a large basket of data. If the data size is small, there is
a chance of bias in the results and that often leads to rejections.
8. Data mismatch or defective tabulation
If your experimental data, images, tabulations, and graphs do not tally with one another or with the
theory you support, then there is a high chance your work will not be accepted. It is crucial to cross
check each of these and make sure the data is easy to understand and deduce. This will help the
reviewer undergo fewer iterations before publishing your work. Do not edit the data that does not
support your theory. This is considered tampering and plagiarism.
9. Conclusion stated cannot be drawn or cannot be generalized
After all the effort of having proper experimentation and collecting sufficient data, if your conclusion
speaks about something distantly related, the work will not be accepted. Conclusions can be
generalized only when there is sufficient sampling done. If there is a small amount of sample, then
there is a chance that the same results may not be applicable at a larger scale. So, carefully scrutinize
your work and take sufficient expert opinions before submitting the same for publishing. Any
arguments made must be logically driven and must remain valid at least for the next 5 years. Data
that can change instantaneously or cannot be reproduced must not be used or submitted and neither
should be relied upon for research.
10. Research claim is incomplete
The work that has been done shows multiple observations and has a lot of results, but may not be
recognized as a full study. The work may be considered too preliminary and the experiments may not
have a high level of confidence. If the work does not add any significant value to the existing literature
or is an average work that cannot be used any further, it may not qualify as a complete study. Just as
a researcher searched for a high impact journal, the researchers work must also add impact to the
journal. Poor conceptualization leads to rejection.

© 2019 IJRAR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 1 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)
IJRAR19J3700
International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org
736
11. Repeated or Not an original study
Bringing out the novelty is important. Research does not mean modifying the contents or beautifying
what has already been stated before, it means adding more to an existing claim, either in support or
in contradiction. The reviewer may reject your work if similar proceedings are found submitted or
quoted in other journals. Often these papers are seen to have contents that are a small extension of
work from another paper, possibly the author’s own. Journals accept review papers as well, in which
case current findings must be present or accounted for in the article. In case the literature is solicited
from any author, the cover letter must clearly state the details and purpose.
12. Research is unethical or dangerous to society
If the work that has been done, or the experimental systems or procedures used are unethical, legal
action may be initiated along with rejection. While executing any work, make sure everything aligns
as per the ethical standards of the society and accreditation boards. If the research quality standards
do not meet the norms of scientific society and the laws governing us, the research may be deemed
dangerous and the member may be barred.
13. Reference to special cases or examples
If the work depends upon claims made only for special cases or samples and not on ones that are
generalized, then such work may not be accepted by a journal. The published work must be applicable
to all scenarios. In other cases if it refers to special cases, it must be explicitly mentioned that the aim
of the work is applicable only to certain scenarios and the upper limit must be clearly mentioned.
14. Improper Citations
It may seem strange but even reusing your own work from previous labs or degrees can be committing
self-plagiarism. It is very important to cite the articles you have referred or your work may be rejected
on copyright claims. Be honest with your submission as copyright and plagiarism are offenses that
can be criminally charged!! Journals have criteria where only 10-20% of your citations may be from
your or your co-author’s work. The rest must necessarily be from external authors. In case this ratio
is not maintained, the work may not be considered as free from bias and may be rejected. While
providing citations for fellow authors, make sure to use recent literature. Outdated literature may
support wrong conclusions or may have a lot of contradictory literature’s. Try not to exclude studies
that are negating your hypothesis, you may choose to discuss them with proof, to add more
authenticity and conviction to your work. Insufficient citations may also be a cause for rejection.
15. Manuscript will have limited interest to international audience
If your work does not attract viewers, the journal may not encourage it further. A manuscript must
have a catchy aim and a novel technique or a topic of mass interest. That will attract viewers and

© 2019 IJRAR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 1 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)
IJRAR19J3700
International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org
737
citations and will be beneficial to both the author and the publisher. Again, if the audience is limited
to a particular region within a country, that too may not be entertained further.
16. Improper Citation of reference
If a journal mentions certain citation format then the researcher need to follow the same as most of
the rejections are done because of such reasons. For Eg; if the journal is asking for APA format and
the researcher follows ASA format then rejection may occur in reputed and peered journal.
JOURNAL’S OVERALL CRITERIA FOR ACCEPTANCE
Each journal may have stated their acceptability criteria before hand. It should be carefully looked through
to avoid rejections. Most common criteria’s are –
• The study must present the results of the primary scientific research.
• Results that have been reported must not be published elsewhere.
• Experiments, statistics, and other analyses must be performed to a high technical standard and should
be described in sufficient detail.
• Conclusions should be presented in an appropriate fashion and must be supported by the data.
• The article should be presented in an intelligible fashion and must be written in standard English.
• The research should meet all applicable standards for the ethics of experimentation as well as research
integrity.
• The article must adhere to appropriate reporting guidelines as well as community standards for data
availability.
In case your work has been explicitly rejected without any iterations, there is a high chance that even
modifications may not lead to acceptance. This suggests that the reviewers may not support your line of work
or the journal scope may be different. In such cases, do not be disheartened, it is always good to try looking
for other journals to publish your work. Every researchers data, though and concept is valuable no matter
how simple it is. It must be published. Use the rejections as a learning to better your literary work, refine
your approach and stay focused till you succeed.
CONCLUSION
There are many reasons that journals reject manuscripts for publication, some due to the quality of the
research or manuscript, and some due to completely avoidable reasons like mismatch with the journal.
Further, it is not rare for journals to reject even high-quality manuscripts simply because of space constraints
or other issues. The reasons given above are some of the most common reasons for rejection, but they are
not the only ones. Other reasons include salami publications, non-conformance to ethics policies, and
plagiarism.
REFERENCES:

© 2019 IJRAR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 1 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)
IJRAR19J3700
International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org
738
1. Ajao OG (2005) Some Reasons for Manuscript Rejection by Peer Reviewed Journals. Annals of
Ibadan Postgraduate Medicine 3 : 9-12.
2. Chew FS. Fate of manuscripts rejected for publication in the AJR. AJR Am J
Roentgenol. 1991;156:627–32.
3. Fathelrahman AI (2015) Rejection of Good Manuscripts: Possible Reasons, Consequences and
Solutions. J Clinic Res Bioeth 6: 204. doi:10.4172/2155-9627.1000204
4. Roberts W. Revising manuscripts after studying reviewers’ comments. Am J Cardiol. 2006;98:989–
9.