Did you push too much?

You submitted a paper months, sometimes even a year ago (and yes, the process is long, especially for highly ranked journals), and after a MAJOR REVISIONS response, and another with MINOR REVISIONS, your paper was REJECTED!!???

Why did this happen?

First, let's recall the decisions of peer reviewers. If you move to a first peer review, the reviewers will make their individual decisions:

• Accept - Great! But this almost never happens after the first round of revision.
• Minor Revisions - Usually this is the best outcome after the first submission.?
• Major Revisions - OK, you still have work to do, but you're still in the running.
• Rejection - Obviously, this is not good, but it may come with feedback on how you can improve.

The two most common editorial decisions after peer review are minor and major revisions. A minor revision decision means that your work will probably not be sent back to the original peer reviewers for another round of comments. This is actually a policy for many journals. Make the revisions and resubmit your paper. The journal editor will likely make their final decision on your paper based on the changes you now make to the work, as well as the content, its originality, and how you write your cover letter (a topic we'll cover shortly!). So, I know it can be a shock after working and reworking your paper only to be rejected. Even more so when one or two reviewers recommend it for publication.

There may be several reasons:

• - you didn't respond to all the technical "comments
• - even after all the improvements, your paper still lacks novelty
• - your paper is still “mediocre”.
• - the editor has taken the entire decision to refuse
• - you may have pushed too hard

And today, let's focus on that last point: did you push too hard?

What exactly does that mean? It means that you wrote too many emails to the editor asking about the status of your paper. In most cases, editors are not paid for the work they do for a journal. I say almost because they may sometimes receive compensation, especially when there are publication fees. So, unfortunately, they can process the process faster than expected. And yes, it's a bummer for researchers who have been waiting for months, but that's the human part of the industry.

What can you do in this case?

As I always advise my collaborators: never accept something without asking WHY. First, take a look at the revision process. Be true to yourself and evaluate whether the editor was right to reject your paper. If he/she was right, you should consider reworking your paper based on all the comments and resubmitting it. If you strongly disagree with his decision, I really suggest you write to him. I don't think it's fair to reject because someone pushed too hard or wanted to rush the process. Finally, another option is to choose another review. In this case, remember that each journal has different guidelines, so make sure your paper meets them.

Publishing a paper, especially in a class A journal, with a good impact factor is not easy, but there is always a solution, I believe. You just have to find the most effective one for your case. Do you need some advice? BEYOND WORDS LINGUISTIC SERVICES FOR FRANCOPHONE RESEARCHERS offers several services to researchers. By working together, we can increase the chances of your paper being accepted. The Folow-up stage is included in all services. The aim is not to translate or proofread your paper, but to publish it.