Rejection of a scientific paper by the journal is the norm in academic publishing. Most reviewers do not want to reject an article unless there are justifiable reasons for doing it. A study by Hall and Wilcox concluded that 62% of the published papers have been rejected at least once. In other words, rejection of your hard-worked paper is sometimes normal and should not be the end of the world. Once you recover from the frustration of rejection, it can be helpful to consider the detailed comments and summary as perceived by the reviewers, as an opportunity and valuable information to improve your research.
We have listed a few number of reasons why a journal decides to reject a paper.
Technical Reasons
The editorial board will undertake some basic checks required by the journal. The Editor-in-Chief has the discretion to reject the manuscript straight off even before sending it to the reviewers for reviewing. The main reason of this rejection is because it fails the technical screening. The technical screening does not judge the scientific content of the article. It includes: the paper contains elements that are suspected to be plagiarized, the article lacks key elements such as a title, list of authors and affiliations, main text, references, figures and tables or the article does not conform to the journal’s Author Guideline.
Out of journal Scope
Each journal has a well-defined aim and scope. You should check and learn the aims and scope carefully before submitting your article. The journal will reject the manuscript that lie outside the stated aims and scope of the journal.
Inaccurate or inconsistent Data Reported
Inappropriate statistical analysis and unreliable data may lead to poor analysis and inaccurate conclusion. Precisely showing the results with application of statistical principles and proper data will increase the probability of acceptance of the manuscript.
Lack of Novelty and Originality
Novelty and originality are a very important aspect of the research. For finding novelty in your area of research, you should carry out an extensive literature review and depend on your in-depth knowledge of the field. The researcher should be able to interpret the research outcome in a valuable way.
Language and Writing Issues
Language quality plays a particularly important role in a scholarly article. Poor language quality will make the referee and readers difficult to understand. It is always a good idea to ask others or use any English Language Editing services to check the language and structure of your paper.
REFERENCES:
https://www.internationalscienceediting.com/reject_without_peer-review/
https://www.editage.com/insights/most-common-reasons-for-journal-rejection