Reasons why articles are rejected or ignored by journals

[euro_trash]

I was once rejected for not double-spacing the text. Whoops

[Myword]

If that's the only reason, it is idiotic.

[mamselle]

I go back and forth between wondering if being an Independent Scholar has any effect, or not.

Presumably, in a blind review, that info wouldn't make it through to the reviewers. But would an editor see it and be any more likely to just do a desk rejection?

Part of me says, no, they'd give it a chance like anything else.

Another part of me knows very well how academic politics work.

Soo.....any thoughts?

M.

[Sun_Worshiper]

I go back and forth between wondering if being an Independent Scholar has any effect, or not.

Presumably, in a blind review, that info wouldn't make it through to the reviewers. But would an editor see it and be any more likely to just do a desk rejection?

Part of me says, no, they'd give it a chance like anything else.

Another part of me knows very well how academic politics work.

Soo.....any thoughts?

M.

Do any journals in your area do triple blind review? These should be safe.

[Hibush]

I go back and forth between wondering if being an Independent Scholar has any effect, or not.

Presumably, in a blind review, that info wouldn't make it through to the reviewers. But would an editor see it and be any more likely to just do a desk rejection?

Part of me says, no, they'd give it a chance like anything else.

Another part of me knows very well how academic politics work.

Soo.....any thoughts?

M.

Editors vary so widely that it is likely for the journals in your (or anyone's) field the answer is yes for some, no for others. Since crackpots are more often independent scholars, there is perhaps some extra care. But crackpots should be easily identified by reading a few paragraph and thereby giving authors a fair shot based on their ideas.

There is a lot of discussion in the academy now about inherent biases and how they affect various people. If your name is feminine, or Chinese, or has some other inidicator, will editors and reviewers (or tenure panels or student evaluators) act based on expectations about that group rather than the individual? Editors prejudging individual independent scholars is a specific case of this phenomenon. I hope the current societal discussion has the editors reflecting on their process!

I would call editors to discuss the scope of the article. I realize that many humanities editors feel that they are above dealing with authors and prospective authors, and consider those editors to be unprofessional. I have encouraged prospective authors not to accept this behavior as normal (even if it is the social norm), and to go ahead an call editors until they find one who acts professionally in giving a reasoned assessment of whether an article is likely to be a fit for the journal, and what kinds of things they especially value in the articles they seek.  You have considerable experience in that world. Would someone following that advice seek in vain?

[jerseyjay]

I would call editors to discuss the scope of the article. I realize that many humanities editors feel that they are above dealing with authors and prospective authors, and consider those editors to be unprofessional. I have encouraged prospective authors not to accept this behavior as normal (even if it is the social norm), and to go ahead an call editors until they find one who acts professionally in giving a reasoned assessment of whether an article is likely to be a fit for the journal, and what kinds of things they especially value in the articles they seek.  You have considerable experience in that world. Would someone following that advice seek in vain?

I am not an editor, so take this for what it is worth. However, one of the prejudices against independent scholars is that they don't know how academia works. So to counsel somebody in this position to do something that is considered unprofessional or goes against the social norm would seem to confirm this prejudice.

In terms of scope of an article for a particular journal: the best way to gauge is to look through issues of the journal. Usually each issue, or the journal web page, lists what the journal's scope is. Twice I have asked a journal editor if my article was appropriate for a journal. One was because a journal had regularly carried articles similar in focus to the one I was submitting, it had not done so in a number of years. The other was because I was contemplating a two-part article and I wanted to see if that was okay. In both cases I emailed, not called. (In the first case, the editor assured me that the article was fine, and then both reviewers criticized it for being outside of the journal's scope, and I had to spend a bit of time refocusing the article.)

In terms of whether the editors are biased against independent scholars: As somebody has said, I think it depends. (Also, independent scholar covers much ground, from PhDs who do other things to hobbyists who send in their articles written in crayon.) When I was working full time in a non-academic position, I always listed my academic affiliation as the school I was teaching one course for online.

I suppose the only way to test this is to send the same articles to journals both as a professor and an independent scholar. However, sometimes I am convinced that even the same article sent under the same credentials will achieve different results, based on the phase of the moon.

[Hibush]

I suppose the only way to test this is to send the same articles to journals both as a professor and an independent scholar. However, sometimes I am convinced that even the same article sent under the same credentials will achieve different results, based on the phase of the moon.

So true. You'd have to send many dozens of publishable articles to get a robust estimate of the affiliation effect relative to all the other sources of variation.

[Faith786]

I was once rejected for not double-spacing the text. Whoops

Ugh, bummer.

I was once rejected for apparently not citing someone at all, when in fact I cited that person 15 times. 
When I pointed this out, they immediately thought of another idiotic reason reject.
But the good news is that after my anger subsided, I submitted the paper to an even better journal (2nd highest ranking in the field, actually) and it was published almost immediately, hurray!

[Faith786]

I go back and forth between wondering if being an Independent Scholar has any effect, or not.

Presumably, in a blind review, that info wouldn't make it through to the reviewers. But would an editor see it and be any more likely to just do a desk rejection?

Part of me says, no, they'd give it a chance like anything else.

Another part of me knows very well how academic politics work.

Soo.....any thoughts?

M.

Interesting question, thanks for raising it, Mamselle.

Yes, I feel that being an independent scholar makes publishing more difficult than submitting/publishing in teams because there might be inherent assumptions [that a second, third, fourth, or even fifth pair of eyes from a team-submission] have scanned the work already, and/or it may be better in quality than a single independent scholar's single set of eyes eyeballing the work.  This is even before the Editors decide to send out something for peer-review.

Most of my published work (~70% to date) has been independent-scholarly, and it took almost a year longer to get those published than team-based submissions.
My fastest submission-to-publication successes have been team-based work.

My new note-to-self: if the work gets desk-rejected or peer-review-rejected too many times, ask someone to collaborate, revise, and re-submit together.

[Faith786]

If that's the only reason, it is idiotic.

Agreed, 100!

[mamselle]

Just saw this:

   https://retractionwatch.com/2021/06/02/the-peer-reviewers-and-editor-wanted-to-publish-my-paper-the-legal-team-rejected-it/

Seems like a lot of levels of oversight, not all helpful.

And are there any surmises to be made about the views of Legal Reviewer 1?

M.

[Myword]

Well, I would be called independent scholar, even though I taught over 20 years and retired. I use a gmail account
that is obviously nonprofessional. Some editors feel they are above communicating with mere authors and relegate everything to a female graduate assistant. Editors of popular and academics do not like phone calls. I tried calling Springer a few times, only got customer service. The Netherlands. Journal staff are distant, literally, too. Attitude: we are doing you a favor by reading your article and we owe you nothing-- Step aside for the next author.
  I know one humanities journal that says they are seeking female and Asian authors for more diversity. A woman could always use an initial for her first name. The entire reviewing system is inherently biased. Blind review?? Haha. If you are actually a blind author, it wont be totally blind. You think reviewers are working for nothing?  they probably get special priority when  submitting an article or book to the same journal they review for.
   There is a huge difference between good constructive criticism and quibbling over stylistic issues and looking for any excuse or reason to reject it, even making up things because he/she disagrees with it, doesnt care, is narrow-minded or anti Semitic.  A long  article was published explaining strong biases of journals in philosophy.  Three times I was "desk accepted"--no review to speak of.
     I reviewed numerous published books for a major college journal and served as a reviewer. The editor told me to find something good to say and avoid not recommending it. So I did. Boringness was the worst problem.