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When you can’t recall which journals you’ve sent a paper to?

In our January “how can we help you?” thread, a reader writes:

I have a paper that I’ve been regularly submitting to journals for years now, with long waits followed by rejections each time (par for the course). But I am now at the stage where I literally can’t remember which journals I’ve sent it to and which I haven’t. In the future I’ll make better note of this, but does anyone have any advice? I’ve tried logging into the journal portals and searching my email, but I have changed institutions and sometimes used different emails (also something I’ll change), and I’m pretty sure not everything is turning up. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing I haven’t thought of, but I thought I’d ask here in case someone else has had a similar issue and advice.

I’d recommend that the OP do everything they can to recover their login info for journal portals before submitting the paper–but obviously, that could be difficult if they no longer have access to an email from a previous institution.

What do readers think? Any helpful tips?

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7 responses to “When you can’t recall which journals you’ve sent a paper to?”

  1. Anonymous

    If you genuinely can’t remember and can’t figure out how to find that information, then just submit it anyways. There would be no reason not to at that point.

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      I disagree.

      If OP has been in academia long enough that this one paper has been through several journals, and also they through several instutitions, then they are a successful enough academic that it’s their responsibility to keep track of these things. If they don’t, they should bear the burden of that mistake (i.e. by not submitting to journals which they otherwise might, had they kept better records). If they just submit it regardless, they pass the burden onto the journal editors and reviewers, who in this case clearly do not deserve it.

      Reply
      1. Anonymous

        So your answer is that they shouldn’t get themselves into this problem in the first place? The writer already said they will keep better track to not do that. But you’re not actually saying what should be done. Your answer is not helpful at all.

  2. Anonymous

    I cannot solve this problem, but in the future (and the future starts a today!), keep a log for all your papers of where you send them and when. This will help when you want to follow up on a long wait, etc.
    In fact, I used to do this. I do not do it now because I do not send papers to more than 3 journals – after that they are tossed in the garbage.

    Reply
  3. Anonymous

    Well, I don’t know what to say, other than search your email for the title of the paper. I write in LaTeX and I put the journals I’ve sent a paper to and the journals I plan to send the paper to in the source code but commented out.

    Reply
  4. Anonymous

    I don’t think “sent in anyways” is an appropriate recommendation. I’ve received nearly the same paper (less than 40% changed) to review through the same journal after initially rejecting it. I took this as an instance of *soft* academic dishonesty, and reported the issue to the editor. Being careless could damage your philosophical reputation.

    Reply
  5. Anonymous

    I’m a little puzzled by the question. Can’t the OP just log in to the editorial management system the journal uses and check their past submissions? I know some journals accept submissions in a way where this isn’t possible, but that vast majority that I can think of are not like this.

    Reply

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