A journal editor reveals
the top reasons so many manuscripts don’t make it to the peer review process
By Peter Thrower, PhD |
Posted on 11 September 2012
When a
manuscript is submitted to a high-quality scholarly journal, it goes through
intense scrutiny — even before it's seen by the editor-in-chief and
selected for peer review. At Elsevier, between 30 percent to 50 percent of
articles don’t even make it to the peer review process. As
Editor-in-Chief of Carbon, the
international journal of the American Carbon Society, Peter
Thrower, PhD, experiences this situation first-hand. His advice to
authors: "By avoiding these pitfalls, you will save reviewers,
editors and staff time and frustration, and ensure that your work is
judged by its scientific merit, not mistakes."
1. It fails the technical
screening.
Before
they even go to the editor-in-chief, articles are checked for technical
elements. The main reasons they are rejected are:
Peter
Thrower, PhD, is Editor-in-Chief of Carbon, the international journal of the
American Carbon Society, and Professor Emeritus of Material Sciences and
Engineering at Penn State University.
- The article
contains elements that are suspected to be plagiarized, or it is currently
under review at another journal. (Republishing articles or parts of
articles, submitting to one or more journals at the same time or using
text or images without permission is not allowed. See our ethical
guidelines.)
- The manuscript
is not complete; it may be lacking key elements such as the title,
authors, affiliations, keywords, main text, references and all tables and
figures).
- The English is
not sufficient for the peer review process,
- The figures are
not complete or are not clear enough to read.
- The article does
not conform to the Guide for Authors for the journal it is submitted to.
- References are
incomplete or very old.
2. It does not fall
within the Aims and Scope.
- For the
journal Carbon, the material studied may contain carbon, but
is not carbon.
- The study uses a
carbon material but the focus is on something different.
- There is no new
carbon science.
3. It’s incomplete.
- The article
contains observations but is not a full study.
- It discusses
findings in relation to some of the work in the field but ignores other
important work.
4. The procedures
and/or analysis of the data is seen to be defective.
- The study lacked
clear control groups or other comparison metrics.
- The study did
not conform to recognized procedures or methodology that can be repeated.
- The analysis is
not statistically valid or does not follow the norms of the field.
5. The conclusions
cannot be justified on the basis of the rest of the paper.
- The arguments
are illogical, unstructured or invalid.
- The data does
not support the conclusions.
- The conclusions
ignore large portions of the literature.
6. It’s is simply a
small extension of a different paper, often from the same authors.
- Findings are
incremental and do not advance the field.
- The work is
clearly part of a larger study, chopped up to make as many articles as
possible.
7. It’s
incomprehensible.
- The language,
structure, or figures are so poor that the merit can’t be assessed. Have a
native English speaker read the paper. Even if you ARE a native English
speaker. Need help? We offer language services.
8. It’s boring.
- It is archival, incremental
or of marginal interest to the field (see point 6).
- The question
behind the work is not of interest in the field.
- The work is not
of interest to the readers of the specific journals.
For more
advice, check out the step-by-step guide How to Publish in an Elsevier Journal or
the Publishing Connect Author Training Webcasts.