Fabio Rojas gives excellent advice on publishing in graduate school. But that first rejection, quite frankly, hurts! By the time one submits, by and large, the paper has been presented, likely with pretty good feedback, received constructive criticism from students and professors, and the student probably feels pretty good about the paper. Hence, s/he presses the submit button with the journal of her/his choice.
However, six weeks or so later, there is something in your inbox that reads:
Decision Regarding Your Paper with … And the decision from the editor, who claims that due to the (not-so-positive) feedback from the reviewers, reads “Rejected!” Believe me, Dr. Rojas and others, I have pretty tough skin. But I still wonder how graduate and former graduate students dealt with that first rejection.
I was “gunshy” for awhile. That is, I sat on working papers until I believed that I had included everything there was to say about the topic in my paper. I have gotten over this. I, now, submit, and complete R&R’s with alacrity. What about you?
Brian A. Pitt
3 responses so far ↓
joshmccabe // November 22, 2009 at 9:19 pm |
After I got my first rejection, I received consolation messages from four economist friends. I’ll keep them anonymous…
Economist #1: “If you can ship it off to another journal within seven days, you are a better man than I.”
Economist #2: “Journals send rejectons? What’s that like?”
Economist #3: “Pin it to the wall with pride and then “stick a stamp on it” and send it out again.”
Economist #4: “Congratulations! You’re on a path well-treaded by many famous writers.”
I took #1’s and #3’s advice. I added a Stinchcombe quote (because Stinchcombe basically fixes everything) and sent it out again.
Mauro Mello Jr. // November 28, 2009 at 1:12 am |
You should also check the link to a YouTube video — Peer Review 1945 — posted on orgtheory.net about ‘feeling cranky after getting some reviews’:
http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/ever-feel-cranky-after-getting-some-reviews/
Philip Cohen // December 5, 2009 at 12:10 am |
My first rejection was really bad. But the next one was actually an R&R, but I didn’t get that far in the letter, so I thought it was a rejection. The editor said, “I’m sorry to tell you we won’t be publishing your article. … [how many they receive, specific problems, etc.] … however, if you would like to revise and resubmit the article, we would be willing to consider it.” I didn’t notice till I showed it to someone standing in the mailroom and he pointed it out to me.