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In the world of academic publishing, desk rejection is a term that strikes fear into the hearts of many researchers. It refers to the rejection of a manuscript by a journal editor without it undergoing peer review. While receiving a desk rejection can be disheartening, understanding why it happens and how to avoid it can greatly improve your chances of getting your work published. In this blog post, we’ll explore the concept of desk rejection, understand the top reasons for desk rejection, and provide tips on how to avoid common pitfalls.
Top Reasons for Desk Rejection
How to Avoid Desk Rejection in Journal Submission
How Professional Editing Can Help Reduce Desk Rejection Risk
What Should Authors Do After Receiving a Desk Rejection?
FAQs About How to Avoid Desk Reject
What is Desk Rejection?
Desk rejection occurs when the editor of a journal decides not to send a submitted manuscript out for peer review. Instead, they reject it outright based on an initial assessment. This decision is typically made if the manuscript is deemed unsuitable for the journal, either due to its content or failure to meet specific submission criteria.
Top Reasons for Desk Rejection
Mismatch with Journal Aims and Scope
Journals have specific aims and scopes outlining the type of research they publish. They also specify the subject areas preferred by the journal and the most likely target audience. Submitting a manuscript that doesn’t align with these can lead to desk rejection. Before submitting, carefully read the journal’s aims and scope to ensure your research fits within their focus areas.
Incorrect Article Type
Journals accept different types of articles, such as original research, reviews, and case studies. Some journals publish only specific article types, such as case studies or reviews. Others publish certain article types (e.g., commentaries) only by invitation. Submitting the wrong type of article can result in desk rejection. Check the journal’s author guidelines to determine the appropriate article type for your research.
Non-Adherence to Journal Guidelines
Journals have specific submission guidelines that authors must follow. It can pertain to manuscript formatting, file formats, restrictions on manuscript length, ethical guidelines, AI usage guidelines and disclosure requirements, etc. Failure to adhere to these guidelines can lead to immediate rejection. Therefore, thoroughly review the journal’s author guidelines and formatting requirements before submitting your manuscript.
Obviously Poor Writing
Manuscripts riddled with spelling and grammar errors, poor organization, or unclear writing are unlikely to make it past the editor’s desk. Such mistakes stand out to the journal editor like a sore thumb, making your manuscript look unprofessional and unsuitable for subsequent rounds of evaluation. So always take time to proofread and edit your manuscript thoroughly before submission. Consider seeking feedback from colleagues or professional editors.
Unethical or Lacks Objectivity
Ethical concerns such as data or image fabrication, overuse of AI without proper validation, non-disclosure of AI use, plagiarism, copyright breaches, or failure to adhere to standards of research ethics can lead to desk rejection.
Ensure that you cite sources properly, obtain permissions for copyrighted material, disclose any potential conflicts of interest, and maintain adherence to ethical research guidelines.
How to Avoid Desk Rejection in Journal Submission
Choose the Right Journal for Your Manuscript
Research journal options carefully. Do not rush to publish in a high impact journal. Take time to search, review, and select journals that are the best fit for your research.
One way of doing this is to see the sources cited in your paper. The journals that are most cited in your own manuscript are most likely your accept your paper because they publish research papers related to your subject area and discipline.
Another way is to check the previously published papers in journals of your choice. See whether papers similar to your study topic have been published in those target journals before shortlisting. You can also use journal selection services or journal finder tools from publishers’ websites to assist you with choosing the best-suited journal for your manuscript.
Clearly Define the Research Gap
Journal editors want studies that offer something genuinely novel to furthering the current research on a topic. It need not be a huge breakthrough. It could be analyzing certain published results in a different way or modifying an existing methodology to better understand a theoretical concept. Recognize where the gap lies in existing research and highlight it clearly. This gives editors a strong reason to consider your paper for peer review.
Follow Journal Formatting Guidelines Carefully
Read guidelines carefully to familiarize yourself with the journal’s formatting expectations for initial manuscript submissions. These guidelines may differ from the final format of the manuscript when published. So do not rely published papers. Instead, read their submission requirements and prepare a complete publication package with all the required files.
This includes a properly formatted manuscript, figures, tables, cover letter, appropriate disclosure statements, and supplementary files (is applicable).
Ensure Clear and Concise Writing
Journal editors have limited time on their hands. When reviewing hundreds of manuscripts every day, it is not humanly possible for them to deep dive into your research paper. Most likely, they will peruse your submission and look at key sections like the Abstract, Introduction, and Conclusion to understand the core objective of your study and key implications.
Therefore, ensure the headings and sub-headings clearly indicate what the sections and sub-sections are reporting. Refer to figures and tables appropriately to provide additional clarity. Avoid overly lengthy sentences that convolute the message. Brevity is key. Use simple, short sentences with easily discernible language while maintaining the usage of correct field-specific terminology where required.
Strengthen Your Abstract and Title
At times, editors focus solely on the abstract and title before deciding to read the manuscript further. What is the study about? What do you aim to achieve through your research? Be specific in the title.
The abstract must also be sufficiently descriptive to draw the editor in to your paper. Present a strong reason for initiating the study. What problem are you trying to address? How do you plan to present the solution to the identified problem (methodology)? What did you find during your analysis (key results)? What does this mean for the research (conclusions and implications)? Answer these questions clearly and concisely.
Ensure Strong Research Methodology
The Methods section also serves a key purpose in determining the fate of your manuscript. If you are not adding anything new to existing research methodology, editor do not see any merit in publishing your paper. Reiterating similar findings through an existing methodology lacks novelty. Therefore, highlight why your methodology is different from existing approaches.
What additional tests did you conduct to validate already reported findings? Or how did your modified testing method dispute existing results? Such unique insights make your research paper stand out and helps prevent desk rejections.
Write A Strong Cover Letter
A cover letter is the very first document that a journal editor views. Think of it as a movie trailer that sets the premise for your research story. It should be drafted in a way that compels the journal editor to give your manuscript a fair chance at publication.
A strong cover letter
- highlights the novelty of the study,
- explains why the paper is suited for publication in that journal,
- defines the research objectives and study implications clearly,
- describes why the research will be of interest to the journal’s target audience, and
- discloses any conflicts of interest.
How Professional Editing Can Help Reduce Desk Rejection Risk
By understanding the reasons for desk rejection and taking proactive steps to avoid common pitfalls, researchers can increase their chances of successfully navigating the publication process. Professional editing is one way of achieving this.
With the rise of AI writing tools, expert reviews may seem unnecessary. Smart AI tools can help spot errors in writing, improve sentence structure, enhance grammar, fix spelling and punctuation errors, and provide surface-level insights to resolve fundamental writing issues in your manuscript. However, AI tools lack contextual understanding. And the lack of subject matter expertise and failure to recognize issues in field-specific terminology make them unsuitable for checking the final submission readiness of a manuscript.
This is where expert editing services fill the gap.
- An expert review helps you address all the issues commonly known to cause desk rejections. From checking for journal compliance and perfecting the technical accuracy of your research to ensuring journal scope match and preparing an effective cover letter, Editage’s suite of services supports authors from the get-go.
- AI editing and writing tools are great for recognizing basic issues in writing. But academic editing requires the right subject matter expertise, contextual understanding, and knowledge of the discipline. Experienced editors offer valuable insights to elevate a manuscript from “good” to “publication ready.”
What Should Authors Do After Receiving a Desk Rejection?
While desk rejection can be discouraging, it’s also an opportunity to refine your work and find a better-suited journal for publication.
Analyze the Editor’s Feedback
Receiving a rejection is a way to get objective feedback for your manuscript. Normally, the journal editor explains why the manuscript was a desk reject. It could be that your research did not match the scope of the journal. Or perhaps, the references were not cited properly. There were probably too many errors in language and writing.
Analyze the feedback provided in detail so you can avoid those mistakes during resubmission.
Improve the Manuscript Before Resubmission
Once you have read the feedback, implement the suggestions to improve your manuscript. Strengthen the abstract, highlight the research gap or novelty using clearer phrasing, fix the grammar and language errors, improve sentence structures, and ensure consistency in referencing.
Resubmission can be of two types: either you approach the same journal again or submit it to a different journal.
Consider Submitting to Another Suitable Journal
Usually, resubmitting to the same journal may not yield positive results, especially if the reason for rejection was mismatch in scope. So, rather than spending time on repackaging the submission to the same journal, consider improving the manuscript based on the feedback and submit this enhanced version to a different journal.
Check for compliance with journal scope, match article type, and look at the previously published papers in the journal to verify the preferred focus areas. When you resubmit, prepare the submission package to suit the new journal’s requirements.
FAQs About How to Avoid Desk Reject
1. Why do manuscripts get desk rejected?
Desk rejections can happen for several reasons. The most common being a mismatch with journal’s aims and scope. Other than that, manuscripts also get desk rejected for insufficient clarity on novelty, not highlighting the research gap, excessive writing and formatting errors, plagiarism, non-compliance with research ethics, and inadequate contribution to existing research.
2. How important is journal selection in avoiding rejection?
Selecting the right journal is the most important step to avoid desk rejection. If the scope of the target journal does not match that of your research paper, it is not likely to be considered for peer review. A careful analysis of potential target journals must be done before shortlisting the final ones. And then, choose the most appropriate journal that best suits your manuscript.
3. Can editing services help avoid desk rejection?
Yes and no. Editing services cannot guarantee acceptance. What they can do is increase the chances of your paper being accepted and reduce the possibilities of desk rejection. Professional editing services ensure strong compliance with journal requirements because of their familiarity and knowledge of what journal editors expect to see in a manuscript and cover letter.
4. How long does a desk rejection usually take?
The decision of desk rejection is usually informed to the authors within two weeks of submission. Since the decision is taken solely by the editor and the paper does not undergo detailed peer evaluation, authors can expect a fairly quick response from the journal.
5. Should I submit my manuscript again after a desk rejection?
Yes indeed! A desk rejection does not imply your research is bad. It only means that it was unfit for that particular journal. So after receiving a desk rejection, take time to revise and improve the manuscript and resubmit to a different journal.
