Fate of manuscripts declined by the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology

Quality assurance in gastroenterology: QA in research, and research in QA

“…Earlier surveys have shown that after rejection, manuscripts are rarely changed substantially before submission to another journal [14,15]. More recent surveys have verified previous observations that the majority of rejected manuscripts appear in lowerimpact journal, but some now suggest that at least some advice has been taken from the rejecting reviewers [16,17]. It is often hard for authors to accept that a study is not up to standards for publication and there is a wealth of journals to choose between, but hopefully some improvement in scholarship is about to be achieved as a result of the peer-review system.…”

Handling Manuscript Rejection

“…10 The authors' second-choice journal may need to be a lower-impact journal. 3,7,8,[11][12][13] When authors submit to their second-choice journal, they should take comments from the reviewers of the first journal into account. A study 11 on the fate of rejected manuscripts showed that 82% of authors incorporated at least one change suggested by the reviewers from the original journal.…”

“…3,7,8,[11][12][13] When authors submit to their second-choice journal, they should take comments from the reviewers of the first journal into account. A study 11 on the fate of rejected manuscripts showed that 82% of authors incorporated at least one change suggested by the reviewers from the original journal. Even though these rejected manuscripts were subsequently General medicine 11 3 (27) Not reported *Rates were obtained from publications retrieved from a MEDLINE search conducted in July 2008 (search terms: "fate," "manuscripts," "rejection"; limited to English).…”

“…published in lower-impact, second-choice journals, manuscripts incorporating at least one of the changes suggested by the reviewers of the first journal were published in higher-impact, secondchoice journals than manuscripts without any changes. 11 Ignoring reviewers' comments may seem the easy option, but it can be risky. If the second journal uses the same reviewers as the first journal, the reviewers are unlikely to be impressed that their improvement suggestions were ignored.…”

Tips on how to write a paper

“…More than half of rejected articles are eventually published somewhere else. 46 Appeal is an option but it is usually best not to call the editor directly, especially when angry or upset. Editors are willing to consider first appeals but the author must revise the paper and clearly refute criticisms, not just say the subject is important or the reviewers are wrong or biased.…”