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In our newest “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:
I am wondering whether having been rejected by a journal in the past decreases your odds when submitting a new paper there. In general, is it better to go to a different journal, where you haven’t been rejected?
I don’t think so, but I don’t know for sure.
Do any readers have any helpful insights?
No. Except maybe in the case of journals where review is not anonymous/is primarily conducted by the editor.
If you keep sending unfinished papers that are desk rejected … then take the message
I don’t have any inside information, but I’ve been advised by more senior philosophers that you should not take rejection of one paper as a sign that the journal is not interested in your other papers. That said, I’ve definitely gotten the feeling that certain journals, especially ones where decision-making authority is more centralized, tend to have a negative response to the kinds of papers I write, maybe because they need to get past the same editor each time and that editor simply disagrees with the way that I like to set up the issues or with my broader philosophical project. So I wouldn’t assume that you’re on anyone’s blacklist or anything like that (though I suppose anything’s possible). But there might be independent reasons for you not to continue submitting to journals that don’t seem to like your stuff
The lesson you should take from rejection depends on the details. If you are constantly getting desk rejections, it could be that your areas of interest don’t intersect with the areas the journal covers. If you are getting rejections after external review, then your topics are within the journal’s scope, but they might need a quality bump to deal with objections better before submission. However, if you’re getting positive responses from reviewers with some constructive feedback and the editorial decision is to reject, then you should move on to other journals.
Practically, I don’t submit to the same journals very often because I want to maximize my chances of getting a diverse set of reviewers. If you always submit your work to Journal A then Journal B when A rejects it, you may be getting the same reviewers from A and B, so switching up your approach could be beneficial.
On the whole, rejection is to be expected when publishing, but you should be sure to consider the details and not get stuck in a rut of trying to publish in the same journal as your first option.
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