Rejection of a Manuscript
Categories Scientific Communication

5 Common Errors that Lead to the Rejection of a Manuscript

You have written your research manuscript with diligence, and now, you are ready to submit it for publication. You are worried if it gets rejected.

This is common with novice research scientists. However, if you know what makes the journal editors reject your manuscript, you can take care of such errors before submission.

So, here’s a glimpse of the common errors that can lead to the rejection of your manuscript:

1) Selection of a wrong journal

The foremost reason your manuscript gets rejected is that your research study doesn’t fit the scope of your selected journal. So, you will waste your valuable time if you select a journal out of your paper’s scope.

To avoid any mistake in selecting the right journal for your paper:

  • Carefully read the scope of the journal on its Homepage and also the section on “Instructions to Authors”.
  • Search for the similar articles in the journal.

 2) Plagiarism

Plagiarism is an act of presenting other’s work as your own. It is a serious offence in the research paper writing. Journal editors are not fools. With a plethora of plagiarism detectors, it’s easy to recognise plagiarised content in your paper.

Even self-plagiarism or reproducing your own work in another journal without citing the original can lead to the rejection of your manuscript.

Therefore, you should:

  • Always acknowledge your sources of reference
  • Not submit the results of a published literature even in a lower-ranked journal
  • Change the text copied from another source to make it different and also acknowledge the source.

3) Insignificant or false findings in the research results

The journals accept only those manuscripts that present an original research study, those which report high-quality and novel work and make significant contributions to their desired field.

Thus, if your manuscript fails to meet this criterion, or it reports a routine or trivial or false finding which doesn’t contribute significantly to the progress of Science, it will be outwardly rejected.

To avoid rejection:

  • Search the published literature related to your research topic and see their results.
  • Publish only those findings which are new or significant to your field of research.
  • Highlight the novel properties of your research study
  • Compare your article with the previous work in the field and justify your improvements with a clear statement

4) Technical errors

With one or two technical flaws, you will receive a request for revision. However, rejection occurs if it contains many technical flaws such as:

  • Discrepancy between the Abstract and the remaining manuscript
  • Study of the wrong groups
  • Wrong statistics
  • Clinically insignificant results
  • Absence of a relation between the results and their discussion
  • Contradictory/false data
  • If the conclusion doesn’t answer the research question
  • Poor use of language with grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors

There lies the importance of proofreading and editing your manuscript before you submit it to the journal.

5) Failure to follow “Instructions for Authors”

If you do not follow the “Instructions for Authors” prescribed by a specific journal, it will either delay the peer review process or lead to your manuscript rejection. So, you should always:

  • Carefully read the instructions a number of times. Best, take a print out of the journal guidelines and highlight the key instructions you have to follow.
  • Before submission, check whether you have incorporated all the instructions in your writing.
  • If you do not understand the instructions or are short of time, take help from a professional scientific editor.

Last, but not the least. Do not hurry to submit your paper to the journal publication. Take time and carefully check if you have fulfilled all the requirements as an author.

Submitting your Research Paper
Categories Scientific Communication

Dos and Don’ts when Submitting your Research Paper

Do you think journal publication is an easy process?

You write a research paper, submit it to the journal office and Voila! The editors will publish your paper.

If you think so, you are mistaken. Submitting your paper for publication in your desired journal can be tedious as many things need to be taken care of.

Therefore, we are here to make your journal publication easy and successful through our publication support services experts. By keeping in mind a checklist of do’s and don’ts when submitting your paper, you can register as a good author in the eyes of the journal editors.

Do’s

  • Examine the scope of the journal and the description of its contents. The Homepage of the journal gives you an idea of its scope. Still, you must scroll through the articles published in the journal and see whether they match yours. If in doubt, send the title and the abstract of your paper to the journal office for their quick opinion.
  • Read the “Instructions for Authors” section carefully.
  • Evaluate the format of your paper. Do not keep the formatting for the last stage. Give regards to the appropriate format as per the journal guidelines right from the beginning to reduce your burden.
  • Clarify with your journal about the expenses on paper submission, coloured photos, or reprint charges.
  • Write an appropriate cover letter. A cover letter is not only for saying you are submitting a paper, but it should also contain a summary of your novel findings and why you consider your work as appropriate for the journal. Do not forget to cross-check that you address the editor of that journal only where you are submitting your paper.
  • Make sure you submit all the required items with your paper at the journal office.
  • Enlist the name of your English-speaking colleague if you take his help in preparing your manuscript.
  • Proofread your manuscript several times before you submit.
  • Include the names of all the authors with their comments on the manuscript before submitting. Set a deadline for all the co-authors to give their comments on the manuscript.

Don’ts

  • Assume things and sit back after submitting. After submitting your paper, wait for few days. If you don’t get an acknowledgement about the reception of your paper, email the journal office. Similarly, if you get no status update on your paper in 6 weeks to two months, contact the journal office.
  • Take the reviewer’s comments personally. Peer reviewers are not your critic but help to give your research paper a finishing touch. Usually, they don’t use personal language to comment on your paper but sometimes it slips through. So, don’t take their comments to heart.
  • Delay the revision of your paper. Most journals follow a two-month rule where they require you to submit your revised paper. Take the reviewer’s comments seriously and make the necessary changes as early as possible.
  • Confuse the editors and the reviewers with your revisions. Thank them for their suggestions and respond to each point in a clear and logical way so that they don’t have to fish about whether or not you adequately addressed the issues.
  • Include the data that has been published previously except when citing their reference.
  • Rely heavily on the grammar and plagiarism checking tools. Use a human eye for the second opinion.
7 Steps to Write Your Research Paper Faster
Categories Scientific Communication

Spending Time Just Scribbling Your Manuscript?

Documenting the results of your research in the form of a manuscript is harder than conducting a research itself. Many scientists are clueless on where and how to begin writing a medical manuscript.

But, not when you have these 7 steps in mind!

7 Steps to Write Your Research Paper Faster

 1.Outline the format of the paper

  • Introduction to research topic
  • Hypothesis of research
  • Materials and methods used
  • Key findings
  • Discussion on the results of research

2.Introduce your research topic

  • Provide relevant background information on the topic
  • State the implications of your work with in-text citations

3.Define your hypothesis

  • Write in present tense
  • Give brief overview of your experimental design

4.Materials and methods used in research

  • Write in past tense
  • Organize it in sub-sections with headings

5.Key results of research

  • Organize it in sub-sections with headings
  • Use tables, figures, and graphs to support the data

6.Discussion of results

  • Describe the main findings of your research
  • Address the hypothesis showing evidence from your results
  • Report how the results relate to the previous studies in the field
  • Conclude by summarizing the outcome of the study

7.What to avoid?

  • Long, complex, and vague sentences
  • Unnecessary detail
  • Unnecessary use of technical terms