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Resubmitting a radically revised paper to the same journal?

In our August "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I had a draft that was once rejected by a journal. I rewrote the draft entirely. The idea is similar (but not the same), but the content is very different. I checked and there was like 3-4% (mostly quotes) overlap with the original draft.

My question is: is it appropriate if I submit this new draft to the same journal? I would not do this for most of my other drafts. But this paper is in a fairly narrow area and this journal is one of a few specific journals in this area.

Good question. I had a similar question earlier in my career, and I recall being advised that journals don't like this kind of thing. If they rejected the paper on the topic the first time around, then even if the paper is radically revised, they probably won't be willing to consider it.

Can you get around this problem–for example, by retitling the paper? Not sure, but I sort of doubt it. It is unfortunate that sometimes, there can be few places to send a given piece (this can particularly be a problem if the paper is long and on a niche topic). But I'm not sure what is to be done about this.

In my case, I just found new places to submit the piece to earlier in my career. But in my case, it did require sending the paper to a relatively unknown journal (fortunately, however, this didn't prevent the piece from getting read and engaged with!).

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? Any helpful tips or experiences to share with the OP?

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7 responses to “Resubmitting a radically revised paper to the same journal?”

  1. Olle Blomberg

    Ask the managing editor if it’s okay, and be sure to explain that you have addressed the concerns that led to the original rejection (or explain why these concerns are no longer relevant). I don’t think it’s a good idea to try to hide that it is a rewrite. FWIW, I got a paper rejected by a journal that I then, after having asked the managing editor, resubmitted to the same journal as a shorter discussion piece that ended up being accepted (the discussion piece was much more narrow and the writing was different but the main idea and argument was the same).

    Reply
  2. Laurence B McCullough

    Write to the journal editor and make your case for submission as a new paper rather than revised and resubmitted paper that had been previously submitted and rejected. While waiting for a response, keep working on the paper to improve it.

    Reply
  3. newly tt

    I once got a rejection from a journal and then a follow-up (in a separate e-mail, which I did not solicit) that the journal sometimes published significantly re-written papers they’d previously rejected. At the time, it struck me as odd – well, it still strikes me as odd – but it makes me inclined to think writing the editor, as advised above, is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

    Reply
  4. Pekka Väyrynen

    Journals may of course vary. But I did this once with a general philosophy journal in a situation very much like OP’s: a related idea, significantly different content, different title. I didn’t check beforehand. No concerns from the journal. The paper was rejected the second time, too, but based solely on reports. I doubt anyone was tracking this kind of thing. I don’t think I was doing anything untoward. I also wouldn’t worry about it in my own editorial work. I would want the best original papers.

    Reply
  5. SN

    I wrote a very long paper and submitted it to a leading ancient philosophy journal. The paper was rejected, in large part because of its length. The reviewer suggested that I take one section of the paper, which he liked, and make that into its own paper. So, that’s what I did. The resulting paper was much shorter than the original paper; it had a new title, a new introduction, and a new conclusion – but its main argument was the same as it was in that section of the original paper. I submitted the new short paper to the same journal. It never occurred to me that this might not be allowed, since the new paper was very different from the original.
    The journal had my new paper ‘under review’ for around 3 months – and then I got an email telling me that the journal had some computer program that checked for similarities between new submissions and old submissions, and it had found too many similarities between my new paper and the original paper I submitted. Because the original paper had been rejected without an invitation for resubmission, they had to reject the new paper, as well. No reviewer comments. Nothing.
    I was kind of embarrassed, because I honestly wasn’t trying to get away with resubmitting my paper illicitly, which is what the email sort of implied. (I also found it strange that it took 3 months for this computer program to detect the similarities… I would think it would do that immediately on submission of the paper.)
    In any event, my mistake completely wasted 3 months, which was very frustrating. So, if I were you, I would definitely contact the journal editor before submitting your paper, explain the situation, and ask whether you can submit it. If you don’t, you could waste a huge amount of time.

    Reply
  6. I am with SN

    SN’s experience is very interesting. Even before hearing it, my intuition is that the author should move on to another journal. I think too many people are sending papers in to journals before they are ready. So authors should not be surprised that they burned that bridge, and the journal to which they sent the paper does not want to see a revised (even significantly reworked) version of the paper. Very little is gained from sending unfinished or unworked our papers into journals. Most often, it creates delays and other problems.

    Reply
  7. Lucky

    I once submitted a paper to a prominent journal, had it rejected on the basis of some criticisms, revised the paper to address those criticisms, sent the paper to a few more journals where it was rejected, then about two years later, I’d forgotten that I’d submitted it to the first journal where it was rejected, I (re)submitted it there, and it was accepted without revisions.

    Reply

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