投稿不中 的第 八 个、第 九 个原因, 看你中招没? 核心:投稿不中的第八个、第九个原因 08 因为“0到1”创新性太高,惨遭排斥。 09 因为是“真论文”!!! 一、投必得老师202-03-24《投稿不中的七个原因》 精选 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-3234092-1224991.html 摘录如下: 01 题目很大,内容太少 02 泛泛而谈,没有重点 03 人云亦云,缺乏特色 04 论据不足,数据不全 05 层次不清,杂乱无章 06 参考文献没有按要求著录 07 临阵磨枪,仓促上阵 感谢投必得老师的金玉良言! 二、补充:投稿不中的第八个原因 08 因为“0到1”创新性太高,惨遭排斥。 【证据一】 2017年05月,《自然》杂志主编坎贝尔(Philip Campbell)先生说: 如果问问科学家们,他们最引以为傲的研究发表在哪里,他们回答的往往是其他一些不太知名、不太被引用的期刊。 换言之,《自然》以及其他一些在选择上比较挑剔、又有高影响因子的期刊,仅代表了重要科研文献的一小部分。 引用自:《科技日报》 2017-05-25,改变科研评估规则,现在是时候了,《自然》总编辑 菲利普?坎贝尔 http://digitalpaper.stdaily.com/http_www.kjrb.com/kjrb/html/2017-05/25/content_370085.htm?div=-1 http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2017/5/377413.shtm?id=377413 原文:If scientists are asked where they are most proud of their research, they tend to answer a list of other less well known and less cited journals. In other words, nature and other journals that are critically selective and have high impact factors represent only a small portion of important scientific literature. 引用自:Editor in chief of nature: it's time to change the rules for scientific research evaluation http://www.bestchinanews.com/Explore/4926.html 【证据二】 科学网,Lisa Bero,2015-01-12,科学家分析同行评审有效性 http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlpaper/201511219413977135306.shtm 近日,刊登在美国《国家科学院院刊》上的一项研究,分析了科学同行评审的有效性, 研究人员表示,同行评审在预测“良好的”论文方面是有效的,但可能难以识别出卓越和(或)突破性的研究。 原文:Kyle Silera, Kirby Leeb, Lisa Beroc. Measuring the effectiveness of scientific gatekeeping. PNAS(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences): http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/12/17/1418218112 【证据三】大量的近年欧美实证研究 (1)同行评议的局限性和改进之策 ,《科技中国》,2019年第十一期pp.34-36,日期:2019-11-19 http://www.casted.org.cn/channel/newsinfo/7562 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1206879.html (2)2019-09-25,近年关于“同行评议”的大数据实证研究论文(汇集) http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1199462.html (3)2020-03-04,Zenas 公理:他人类似观点(汇集) http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1221692.html 三、补充:投稿不中的第九个原因 09 因为是“真论文”!!! 审稿人看惯“ 不可重复 ”的论文了,反而将“ 真论文 ”退稿。 当前在世界范围内,“不可重复”的数量已经明显超过了“真论文”。“真论文”被冤死,已经有快20年了。“劣币驱逐良币 Bad money drives out good”(格雷欣现象,Gresham's law)已经出现:“ 不可重复 (假论文?)”已经驱逐了“ 真论文 ”。 地球之大,竟容不下一张安静的书桌! 近半个世纪人类对“从0到1”高端原创围追堵截、赶尽杀绝。 评审专家不是由于有意压抑,只是由于看惯了“不可重复论文”,也会妨碍“真论文”的刊出。 【证据一】 科学网,2018-10-07,假结果或夸大结果,如何对待和处置科学研究的不可重复结果? http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2018/10/418343.shtm 澎湃新闻: https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_2439849 而且,上述研究都是发表在今天影响因子高的主流期刊上,包括《细胞》(Cell)、《自然》(Nature)、《美国科学院院刊》(PNAS)和《科学》(Science),即CNPS。不仅如此,不可重复的科学研究结果几乎遍布于所有学科。一项研究表明, 今天在全球一流的学术期刊 CNPS 发表的论文的结论 至少有一半 不可重复和检验。 但是,如果认定研究结果不可重复就是造假,而且造假就是造假,难以和根本不可能区分主观(有意)和客观(无意),那么,当今世界的科学研究就必须面临一半甚至超过一半是造假的现实。 【证据二】 太多了,不忍心再说。请您自行查找。例如: (1)中国****报,2019-03-08, 学术不端是怎样的一种全球麻烦 http://www.ccdi.gov.cn/lswh/hwgc/201902/t20190227_189365.html http://education.news.cn/2019-02/17/c_1124125941.htm 因揭露学术不端而全球著名的“撤稿观察”网站共同创始人奥兰斯基告诉作者:“我们统计的全球论文撤稿量已从之前的每年不足40篇,上升到2018年的约1400篇,其中约60%与学术不端有关。” (2)科技日报,2018-10-18, 骗了全世界十余年 干细胞“学术大牛”走下神坛 http://digitalpaper.stdaily.com/http_www.kjrb.com/kjrb/html/2018-10/18/content_405851.htm?div=-1 http://www.xinhuanet.com/tech/2018-10/18/c_1123574783.htm 学术圈某种意义上像是个派系林立的“江湖”,学术权威如同“教主”一样,普通学者没有力量反抗其观点。 随着发表的错误论文越来越多,跟风研究的越来越多,大家都成了既得利益者,就默许了这些错误的观点继续流传下去。 参考资料: 投必得,202-03-24,投稿不中的七个原因,看你中招没? 精选 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-3234092-1224991.html 文双春,2016-08-19,基金挂了只因没创新或评委不懂? 精选 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-412323-997348.html 张九庆,2015-01-06,科学进步的未来:一个比喻性的总结 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-542-856902.html 推荐阅读: 李江,2020-03-10, 科研项目申请的评审改为摇号?真有国家这么干 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-1792012-1222699.html Liu, M., Choy, V., Clarke, P. et al. The acceptability of using a lottery to allocate research funding: a survey of applicants. Res Integr Peer Rev 5, 3 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41073-019-0089-z https://researchintegrityjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41073-019-0089-z 科学网,2017-04-18,荷兰试点经费分配新体系 http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2017/4/373758.shtm 相关链接: 2020-01-20, Donald W. Braben:杀死同行评议,拯救人类文明! http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1214979.html 2020-01-08,1970年以后人类数学、物理学的停滞不前:“同行评议”的直接作用? http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1213380.html 2019-12-02, 科技“同行评议”引发美国《大停滞》? http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1208480.html 2020-03-21, 破除论文“SCI至上”:“从0到1”与“跟踪/改进” http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1224594.html 2020-03-22,破除论文“SCI至上”:X、Y、Z 理论 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1224736.html 2020-01-19,俺不迷信“国际评审”(“同行评议”的局限性) http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1214882.html 强力理性推荐 Gemma Conroy, 2020-03-24 , What's wrong with the H-index, according to its inventor H-指数有什么错,请看其发明者说 https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/whats-wrong-with-the-h-index-according-to-its-inventor “One has to look at the nature of the work,” says Hirsch. “If you make decisions just based on someone’s H-index, you can end up hiring the wrong person or denying a grant to someone who is much more likely to do something important. It has to be used carefully.” 赫希说:“ 必须看一下工作的实质。 ”“ 如 果仅根据某人的H指数做出决定 , 您最终可能会雇用错误的人 , 或者 拒绝 向 更有可能做 重要事情 的人 提供资助 。 必须谨慎使用。 ” 感谢您的指教! 感谢您指正以上任何错误! 感谢您提供更多的相关资料!
为我国2070年开始的诺贝尔科学奖“井喷”清除障碍、铺平道路! 激光器 与 引力波“被”拒稿:功不抵过? 一、 激光 我国专家认为: 激光、原子能、半导体及计算机,是二十世纪四项重大发明。 美国国家科学院 NAS 评出的“20项20世纪最伟大的工程成就”里,“激光和光纤”列为第18项(18. Laser and Fiber Optics)。 与激光有关的研究,获得诺贝尔奖至少5次了。 二、引力波 相对论引力波是1936年爱因斯坦等人提出的。1893年奥利弗·海维赛德(Oliver Heaviside)就提出了非相对论引力波 gravitational waves。 奥利弗·海维赛德,比爱因斯坦早了43年。 The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 发给了 LIGO 的引力波探测。 假定LIGO真的检测到了引力波,那这个引力波到底是海维赛德的,还是爱因斯坦的? 三、“红宝石激光器”1960年被《Physical Review》拒稿 可怜的《物理评论 Physical Review》 Samuel Goudsmit 主编上了审稿人的大当,1960年拒发美国休斯公司梅曼(Theodore Harold Maiman)的红宝石激光一文。 四、爱因斯坦1936年引力波被《Physical Review》拒稿 《物理评论 Physical Review》可以大大地做广告了:1936年拒发了爱因斯坦有问题的引力波稿件。 爱因斯坦是一位善良的正直的科学家,一生至少犯了23个科技错误。像引力波这样的小错,爱因斯坦自己会纠正的,用不着审稿人大惊小怪。 五、激光与引力波:《Physical Review》功不抵过? 《Physical Review》拒稿了“激光器”和“引力波”。目前看来是一对一错。 《Physical Review》在这两件事情上,总体评价“功不抵过”( 功 过 ,或者“ 功绩小 、 过失大 ”)? 核心: “同行评议”往往是阻碍“重大创新”的。 正如我国一位真正的大专家所说: “ 一切真理开始时总是在少数人手里,总是受到大多数人的压力。这是一个规律。 ” 参考资料: the 20th century's greatest engineering achievements, the National Academy of Engineering http://www.greatachievements.org/ 18. Laser and Fiber Optics http://www.greatachievements.org/?id=2966 Lasers and Fiber Optics Timeline http://www.greatachievements.org/?id=3706 1960 Operable laser invented Theodore Maiman, a physicist and electrical engineer at Hughes Research Laboratories, invents an operable laser using a synthetic pink ruby crystal as the medium. Encased in a flash tube and book ended by mirrors, the laser successfully produces a pulse of light. Prior to Maiman’s working model, Columbia University doctoral student Gordon Gould also designs a laser, but his patent application is initially denied. Gould finally wins patent recognition nearly 30 years later. The Nobel Prize in Physics 1964 https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1964/summary/ Charles Hard Townes Prize share: 1/2 Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov Prize share: 1/4 Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov Prize share: 1/4 The Nobel Prize in Physics 1964 was divided, one half awarded to Charles Hard Townes, the other half jointly to Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov and Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser-laser principle. A History of the Laser: 1960 - 2019 https://www.photonics.com/articles/a_history_of_the_laser_1960_-_2019/a42279 Generalized Lorenz-Mie theories and mechanical effects of laser light, on the occasion of Arthur Ashkin's receipt of the 2018 Nobel prize in physics for his pioneering work in optical levitation and manipulation: A review SCIENCE, 1964, Research on Maser-Laser Principle Wins Nobel Prize in Physics https://science.sciencemag.org/content/146/3646/897 Antigone Marino, 2019, Physics, lasers and the nobel prize https://www.europhysicsnews.org/articles/epn/abs/2019/02/epn2019502p26/epn2019502p26.html Oliver Heaviside. A Gravitational and Electromagnetic Analogy Part I. The Electrician, 1893, 31: 281-282. Oliver Heaviside. A Gravitational and Electromagnetic Analogy Part II. The Electrician, 1893, 31: 359. http://sergf.ru/Heavisid.htm The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2017/summary/ The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017 was divided, one half awarded to Rainer Weiss, the other half jointly to Barry C. Barish and Kip S. Thorne for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves. The Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2018/summary/ The Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 was awarded for groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics with one half to Arthur Ashkin for the optical tweezers and their application to biological systems, the other half jointly to Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland for their method of generating high-intensity, ultra-short optical pulses. 刘寄星. 《爱因斯坦和同行审稿制度的一次冲突》 . 物理, 2005, 34(07): 487-490. http://www.wuli.ac.cn/CN/abstract/abstract30656.shtml 《物理评论》当然也发表过错误文章,也犯过由于审稿人知识所限对重要文章拒稿的错误,最有名的事例是20 世纪60 年代初,当时的主编 Goudsmit 拒绝 Maiman 关于激光的文章。 科学网,2008-11-13,《探索》杂志:爱因斯坦一生中的23个错误 http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2008/11/213197.html 相关链接: 2019-12-18,Zenas 公理:2017年《Nature》主编的表述 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1210560.html 2019-12-27,阻碍人类文明进步的评审人,任其“逍遥法外”:真是对真理莫大的讽刺! http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1211732.html 2019-12-02, 科技“同行评议”引发美国《大停滞》? http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1208480.html 2015-09-04,1900年以来,被拒绝发表的重大科技成果实例(搜集) http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-918419.html 2019-12-21,爱因斯坦“奇迹年”的直接原因:没有“同行评议” http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1210941.html 同行评议的局限性和改进之策 ,《科技中国》,2019年第十一期pp.34-36,日期:2019-11-19 http://www.casted.org.cn/channel/newsinfo/7562 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1206879.html 对科技成果代表作评价的具体建议 ,《科技中国》,2019年第二期p41,日期:2019-02-25 http://www.casted.org.cn/channel/newsinfo/7120 http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-107667-1164530.html 感谢您的指教! 感谢您指正以上任何错误! 感谢您提供更多的相关资料!
几乎每个学者都有被拒稿的经历。期刊的接受率通常很低,《柳叶刀》接受率不到 5 %,PLoS ONE 大概 69 %。然而,大多数被拒论文最终都得以发表。 在国际科学编辑ISE的这篇博客文章中,我们将讨论如果你的论文被拒绝,你还有哪些选择,以及哪条路是发表文章阻碍最小的。 来源: https://onsizzle.com/i/sympathy-cards-for-scientists-condolences-on-your-sorry-failed-to-3725064 你可以对编辑的决定进行申诉 只有当您有无可置疑的理由这样做时,才应该使用此选项。 如果你的论文被拒绝的原因与杂志的具体议程有关 --比如你的论文超出了期刊的范围,该杂志最近发表了一篇类似的论文,或者正在准备发表类似的论文,编辑/审稿人认为你的论文相对于其他待发表论文的影响力有限等等。上诉成功可能性很小。 大多数期刊没有能力发表提交给它们的每一篇论文,必须拒绝许多即使科学合理的论文,以防止积压稿件。 如果论文因为审稿人提出的技术问题而被拒稿 ,你确定是审稿人的观点是错误的,你可以上诉。尽可能明确地陈述你的论点,不要重复原稿中所写的内容。如果可以的话,添加新的数据来支持你的论点,修改原稿,使你的论点更清楚。如果一个审稿人误解了你的观点,读者很可能也会感到困惑。如果你认为审稿人没有足够的能力来审核你的论文,礼貌而有策略地请求杂志编辑邀请另一位审稿人。 如果你有明确的证据证明审稿人有不符合伦理的行为—利益冲突、偏见 (参见同行评审报告中的性别歧视示例3)——你可以上诉。 作为作者,你有权提出上诉。然而,有几件重要的事情要记住: · 上诉很少成功。 · 上诉的优先级比重新投稿到新期刊要低,从上诉到收到结果,可能需要几周的时间 ,才能做出决定。 · 杂志编辑们都很忙,如果你上诉,后来被发现没有新的根据,你有可能会被列入“难以沟通”的黑名单。 · 如果你决定上诉,请参阅“How to write an appeal letter”这篇文章,它有一个非常好的指南清单。 你可以把你的论文转投另一本期刊 一些期刊提供 “可转移的同行评审” ,如果你的论文被拒,你可以要求你的手稿,元数据,同行评审报告(连同审稿人身份,在达成协议的情况下),和回复信发送给其他期刊。这些期刊通常来自同一出版商,因此您的转刊选择可能是有限的(例如,BMC)。如果新期刊更合适,与向其他期刊提交新文章相比,这是一种更快的发表方式。如果你担心任何首发权问题,这也是有利的,因为通常发表的论文使用的是原始提交日期,而不是转投后的日期 。 然而,由于许多期刊不提供可转移的同行评审。随着生命科学联盟(Life Science Alliance) 的成立,以及BMC Biology期刊宣布允许作者将他们期刊的拒稿意见转到作者选择的任何期刊,包括BMC和Springer Nature 之外的期刊,可转移的同行评审可能正在兴起。 你可能会担心把之前被拒的所有细节都转交给新期刊的编辑,新期刊的编辑是否会因为他的期刊不是第一选择而受到困扰。事实上,这一误解可能是科学界对可转移的同行评审缺乏理解。编辑们通常“很高兴收到之前审阅过和修改过的稿件,因为论文的整体状况通常更好:更简洁、更清晰” 。 你可以投稿给另一个期刊 这是对拒稿最常见的应对。事实上,许多作者选择了 “先投稿高影响力期刊,如果被拒绝就放弃” 的策略,似乎并不关心潜在的时间浪费 。为了增加成功的机会,你应该根据最初的审稿人/编辑的意见, 选择更适合你的期刊 。如上所述,通常科学合理的论文被拒绝的原因与研究的影响力有关,例如,如果论文只是以前研究的一个小扩展。较低级别或专业期刊更有可能发表此类研究。相对来说,很少能找到一篇存在根本性缺陷、无法在任何期刊上发表的论文。 在改投前,根据被拒期刊审稿人的意见修改论文是非常重要的, 因为你的论文很有可能被送到相同的审稿人那里。 可以投稿到预印本服务器 在预印本服务器上发布的限制条件要少很多;论文只经过基本筛选。投稿免费,通常在48小时内就能接收论文。你的论文不会被同行评审;其他学者可以(公开或私下)在文章发表后对其内容进行评论。你可以上传任何论文,甚至是那些通过同行评审的论文。预印本将被分配一个DOI,它将正式为您文章中的任何声明或想法添加日期,并支持在数据库(如Google Scholar和CrossRef)中索引预印本。 参考文献 1.The Grigorieff Lab.The Paper Rejection Repository. Available from: http://grigoriefflab.janelia.org/rejections . 2. https://dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/first-cut-results-of-poll-on-manuscript-rejections-we-deal-with-a-lot-of-rejection/ . 3.Bernstein R. PLOS ONE ousts reviewer, editor after sexist peer-review storm. Science. 2015 May 1. Available from: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/05/plos-one-ousts-reviewer-editor-after-sexist-peer-review-storm . 4.When to dispute a decision. Available from: https://www.springer.com/gp/authors-editors/authorandreviewertutorials/submitting-to-a-journal-and-peer-review/when-to-dispute-a-decision/10285586 . 5.Doerr A. How to write an appeal letter. Methagora Blog Nature Methods. Available from: http://blogs.nature.com/methagora/2013/09/how-to-write-an-appeal-letter.html . 6.JMIR Publications. Why has my article been transferred to another journal (or a transfer has been suggested), and what are my options? Available from: https://support.jmir.org/hc/en-us/articles/115002462188-Why-has-my-article-been-transferred-to-another-journal-or-a-transfer-has-been-suggested-and-what-are-my-options- . 7.Kießling T. Publishing alliance comes of age. EMBO. Available from: https://www.embo.org/news/articles/2019/publishing-alliance-comes-of-age . 8.Bell GP, Kvajo M. Tackling waste in publishing through portable peer review. BMC Biol. 2018;16:146. Available from: https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-018-0619-z . 9.Pells R. Journal shares peer reviews of rejected papers with rival titles. Times Higher Education. 2019 Jan 2. Available from: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/journal-shares-peer-reviews-rejected-papers-rival-titles . 10.Sullivan GM. What to do when your paper is rejected. J Grad Med Educ. 2015 Mar;7(1):1–3. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4507896/ . 11.Durso TW. Editors’ advice to rejected authors: Just try, try again. The Scientist. 1997. 11:13. Available from: https://www.the-scientist.com/profession/editors-advice-to-rejected-authors-just-try-try-again-57323 . 12. https://www.internationalscienceediting.com/my-paper-was-rejected-what-are-my-options/
每一篇文章都是作者长时间劳动的结果。好不容易想出一个自己觉得很有价值的观点,费了很多精力去验证,最后辛辛苦苦地整理成几页文字,再经过几个月焦心的等候,等来却可能是文章被拒。在N多种拒稿意见中,最让人伤心的是审稿人觉得文章结果不重要,换句话说就是:这文章整的是啥玩意?如何说方法错了,那是自己才疏学浅,只能有错就改。但要是方法对了,结果也是对的,但别人就觉得一点意义都没有,这就等于说直接否定了以前的努力。这时间浪费地比泡吧还不值得,这点挺让自觉得有着高尚追求的科研人员无法接受。 --- 阅读原文 请点击链接造访 【英论阁学术院】文章被拒的理由-结果不够重要 --- 那好吧,啥样的结果不重要呢?曾读过一篇文章,推导了二维跟三维情况下的Lorentz变换。学过相对论的都知道一维的情况教科书就有了,作者认为教科书上没有的就不代表没用,推导出二维跟三维的情况放在一篇文章上,一个是可以节约大家推导的时间,二是可以增加对相对论的理解。确实推推这些公式也挺花时间的,三维坐标轴下的公式确实挺长的,一不小心就搞错了,真都弄对还是要费不少功夫。但不管怎么说,还是很难接受文章可以给当作一个正规的期刊文章刊登出来。因为从物理意义上来说,确实没有更多的价值。深度呢?也没有比一维的情况更有见地。 俺也有文章就这么给拒过。早前要计算一些结构,用了好几个专业的小软件,但是那些软件都没有优化功能,所以就写了一个程序来调用这些工具进行优化,为了具有通用性跟可扩展性,还着实花了不少时间设计了一个通用接口,再这边抄一点,那边抄一点,加了一个表达式解析器,再安进去几个优化算法。弄完之后自己还觉得挺得意的。项目完了之后,想想花了这么多时间在这上头居然没有研究产出,于是花了点时间写了篇文章介绍这个优化器的框架,再加上两个算例投了出去,自认为有设计有案例,估计发表没问题。审稿意见回来了,有个兄台很不客气的说:the paper is too basic and too trivial. A non trivial improvement is essential.编辑叫大修,想想这种文章也就是这样了,再改也改不出啥花的,于是改投另一个期刊,影响因子低到可以忽略不计的。心想哥们,就纳了咱吧。结果人家影响因子虽低,拒稿也不含糊。审稿人说的是:it is not a research。至此就放弃了再投的念头。同时也深深体会到:一个混在物理界的码农,要想发表点有质量的文章是很难的。 这事情对俺刺激还是挺大的。经过认真反思,俺再没把写漂亮的代码作为科研目标,而是抱着能用就行的态度去写代码。而科研重心则放在思考那些fancy idea上。也知道这样子不好,变功利了,但是没法,虽然文章是学术界的敲门砖呢。 § 博客内容皆由 英论阁 资深学术专家团队撰写提供 § ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 您可能感兴趣的博文: 1. 文章被拒的理由-独木不成林 2. 文章被拒的理由-第二种原理性错误 3. 文章被拒的理由-没有做好期刊调研 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
拒绝拒信的通用模版,看完捧腹大笑!刚发表在theBMJ http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h6326 Feature Christmas 2015: The Publication Game Rejection of rejection: a novel approach to overcoming barriers to publication BMJ 2015; 351 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h6326 (Published 14 December 2015) Cite this as: BMJ 2015;351:h6326 http://www.bmj.com/content/351/bmj.h6326 Tired of rejections? Cath Chapman and Tim Slade offer a simple way to fight back All academics aim to publish in high impact journals. However, many leading scientific and medical journals reject more than 80% of the manuscripts they receive, making rejection the biggest barrier to publication in high quality journals. We propose a novel solution to this problem. It involves very little extra work by submitting authors, is applicable to a wide range of circumstances (such as flawed study, lack of broad interest to the field, or highly critical assessors), and is scaleable to meet the needs of academics from various disciplines. To be submitted on receipt of a manscript rejection, the rejection of rejection letter (box) aims to significantly improve the publication rates of participating academics by overcoming the leading barrier to publication—manuscript rejection. An electronic copy of the letter is available from the authors on request. Rejection of rejection letter Dear Professor Thank you for your rejection of the above manuscript. Unfortunately we are not able to accept it at this time. As you are probably aware we receive many rejections each year and are simply not able to accept them all. In fact, with increasing pressure on citation rates and fiercely competitive funding structures we typically accept fewer than 30% of the rejections we receive. Please don’t take this as a reflection of your work. The standard of some of the rejections we receive is very high. In terms of the specific factors influencing our decision the failure by Assessor 1 to realise the brilliance of the study was certainly one of them. Simply stating “this study is neither novel nor interesting and does not extend knowledge in this area” is not reason enough. This, coupled with the use of Latin quotes by Assessor 2, rendered an acceptance of your rejection extremely unlikely. We do wish you and your editorial team every success with your rejections in the future and hope they find safe harbour elsewhere. To this end, may we suggest you send one to for consideration. They accept rejections from some very influential journals. Please understand that our decision regarding your rejection is final. We have uploaded the final manuscript in its original form, along with the signed copyright transfer form. We look forward to receiving the proofs and to working with you in the future. Yours sincerely Dr
最近,生态学领域的重要综述性杂志《进化和生态学进展》 (Trends in Ecology Evolution) 发表了瑞典乌普萨拉大学( Uppsala University )生态学家 Gran Arnqvist 教授的一篇观点性论文,探讨了一个生态学与进化领域(我想也可以拓展到很多相关学科领域)科研工作者在发表论文时经常遇到的问题,或者苦恼:一些高排名的基础性研究杂志( Highly ranked primary research journals )在作者投稿初期的编委预审期不经外审就以“创新性”( Novelty )不足而拒稿。 Gran 教授认为这样一种文章评审标准是非常不合理的:首先,预审期一般都是基于负责该篇文章的编辑(通常是杂志社负责该领域的一位副主编 associate professor )对该篇文章的初审后而决定的,事实上,这位编辑即使是大领域的牛人,在涉及到该篇研究论文所在的具体小领域方面,他未必就是非常精通的专家,以这样一种依其一家之言而枪毙一篇文章,未免有失公允;其二, Gran 教授认为研究人员和杂志编委对文章的偏好之间有一个协同进化的过程( editorial machineries and authors ‘co-evolve’ ),杂志社越是对文章的创新性选择强烈,作者们越是善于投其所好,加大鼓吹自身的文章原创性,以至于创新性其实并不强的文章被作者们不顾一切的放大,从而降低了文章了整体质量;其三,也是他最为担忧的一点, Gran 教授认为当今的科学实践很难做到完全的基础性创新( Very little in science is fundamentally novel ),大部分的研究都是基于前面同行的工作向前延伸,取得了新的进展,而正是这种进展,实实在在的成为了推动科学不断发展的基石( a cornerstone of sound scientific practice )。科学研究需要以前面同行的工作为基础,进行认真的比较和讨论,然而,盲目追求创新性的杂志导向却使得研究人员同前人工作比较而取得的进展看上去是那么的微不足道( more or less incremental ),达不到所谓的完全创新( entirely novel ),这样带来的后果就是研究人员在不知不觉间只顾着强调自身文章的创新性,而完全忽略或漠视之前研究工作者的贡献。最后, Gran 教授还提出了他针对这一现象的几点建议,他认为在文章投稿初期,可以选择文章话题是否符合杂志方向,文章的整体科学质量或方法是否合理等作为预审的标准,对那些排名非常靠前具有高淘汰性的杂志,仍然可以将文章创新性和领域推进性作为裁断参考,但这一阶段可以放到外审后,而且应由负责该文章审稿的小领域外审专家来决定。 说实话,我想大家应该都或多或少的遇到过类似的情况,此刻也许都会产生些或大或小的共鸣吧。在此补充一点,我还遇到过编辑将文章外审,而且外审专家同意修改发表,编辑仍然以 “ 创新性不足 ” 而拒稿了,在最后枪毙我的时候还不忘告诉我:这个杂志对文章创新性的要求是多么的高( outstanding novel ),以至于必须拒绝我们的文章。我无法想象也不明白编辑口中的 outstanding 究竟需要创新到何种程度,也不明白为什么编辑早知创新性不足当初还要劳其神费其力的找专家外审?何不快刀斩乱麻呢?也许,不明白的事还多的呢,有些事真真的不需要明白,难得糊涂,如果真按照 Gran 教授所列举的三种途径而将文章吹着捧着发表了,这样的文章发表后又能有多强的生命力呢?只能说:创新性,一个既伤不起又惹不起的话题。 附参考文献链接及截图: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169534713001262
注:最近被一个国际会议拒稿了,在网站上登录后看到了审稿人的comments,有些感想,记在下面,提醒自己。 审稿人的主要意见中,需要接受并引以为戒的主要有以下几点: 1. Therefore it contains no new insight on the subject and is not acceptable as a technical publication. 2. Important steps of the PSHA are not described which are listed below: • The location of the site is not specified. • The scientific background of generating the seismic sources model is not discussed • Programs like FRISK and SEISRISK III are mentioned in the references while there are no clear explanation on how the hazard curve is obtained • Site response analysis is performed with programs like SHAKE. There is no citation to any site response analysis program and no explanation on the methods of obtaining the free-field time histories. 这一条中有些地方有些委屈,在参考文献中citation了相关计算program的文章,不过审稿人其他方面说的很正确。 震源模型的科学依据并未讨论,之前一直对此没有深入研究,只关注了数值计算过程。 除了上述两条外,还有语法和拼写方面的问题,使得文章有含混不清的地方,对于研究人员来说,这是很致命的缺陷。 而且文章的安排也有问题(把所有的图件都放到了文章最后面),使得审稿人很难阅读。 其中有些comments确实很冤枉,所有的计算和分析工作确实是本人独立完成的,由于英文不是很过关, 不知道怎样具体表述,如审稿人说的没有specific。 总结 1. 提高英文论文写作水平,尤其是准确、具体的表达自己的工作。 2. 继续努力,不留空白,down to the earth,关键的方面一定要深入,至少要实践一次 3. 科研精神,严肃态度,向同行学习,谦虚谨慎,引用前人工作和成果时,要明确清楚。
前段时间投了一篇materials letter,没出意外被拒了回来。本来自己做的东西和结果都是很新的,但是正是因为比较新,还是没有被人认可,所以被拒也就可以理解了,但是收到了这么一个审稿人的意见确实很让人无语 Reviewer #2: The letter studied the transformation from crystalline to amorphous structure induced by HPT at different temperatures in ZrCu and ZrCuAl alloys. The fraction of the amorphous structure increases with increasing the deformation temperature in the alloys, which is great different from that in Ti-Ni-based alloys. Both ZrCu-based and TiNi-based alloys exhibit martensitic transformation. Their lattices should be unstable near the transformation region. So the anomalous behavior is explained by the lattice instability, which is not precise. The authors should perfect the explanation. I regret that I cannot recommend publication of this paper. In addition, there are a number of grammatical errors and instances of badly worded/constructed sentences, for example: 1. In the 2nd paragraph of the introduction "The tendency to form amorphous structure by HPT in TiNi is...". The sentence should be better "The tendency to form amorphous structure by HPT in the TiNi-based alloys is..." 2. The last sentence in the 2nd paragraph of the introduction "., but not lower than Ms.". The sentence should be "., which is higher than Ms." 3. The last sentence in the 2nd paragraph of the results and discussion "It can be seen that ., but saturates after 325K. " is not clear. 4. The sentence in the 3rd paragraph of the results and discussion "The SAED spots in fig. 3(a) from the martensite phases are stretched severely, implying the accumulative straining achieved. " should be "In Fig. 3(a), the SAED spots of the martensite phases are stretched severely, which implies that the accumulative straining is achieved". 5. The last sentence in the 3rd paragraph of the results and discussion "Similar results and tendency were." should be "Similar results were." 6. The sentence in the 4th paragraph of the results and discussion "The fA in both alloys increases with the increasing ." should be "The fA in both alloys increases with increasing ." 哎,可惜,可怜
诸位看到这篇博文的题目,禁不住要问,博主是不是脑子进了 一氧化二氢了,怎么退稿还成了好事儿了? 最近一篇发表在《 科学 》(Science)上的文章发现,稿件如果被退了,然后 重投 给同一领域里的其他杂志,那么引用率要高于一次投稿就成功的文章。以下是对这个研究的简单总结。(有兴趣的话请看博文最后附件里的原文) 这个研究的题目是《稿件在学术杂志之间的流动揭示了隐性的投稿规律》 ( Flows of Research Manuscripts Among Scientific Journals Reveal Hidden Submission Patterns )。 研究问题和办法 :以法国研究者Calcagno为通讯作者的研究团队通过电子邮件做了八万多个问卷调查。问题很简单,就是你的稿件是否在发表前被别的杂志拒过,以及这个杂志是什么。 研究的结果 :75%的文章第一稿就被接受了。25%的文章经过了多次投稿,而且一般会投给影响因子低一点的杂志 (看下面图一)。 最有意思的结果 :如果更换的杂志在同一个领域内的话,那么这些经过多次投稿的文章的引用率比在同一杂志里发表的一次投稿就接受的文章的引用率要高(看下面图二)。 讨论和解释 :第一,这些经过重复投稿的文章也经过了多次的审稿和修改,文章的质量会提高,导致引用率提高。第二,稿件被拒,有时候是因为研究内容和观点比较新颖,不容易被守旧的同行接受。但是一旦发表出来以后,这些文章会得到很多的关注和引用。 我的一点意见 : 现在的学术杂志和评审体系是不利于学术交流的 。虽然评审和修改(一般来说)是必要的、积极的,但是由于杂志档次、影响因子的不同,而导致稿件重投,不管其结果如何,都是对于人力和物力的浪费。最有利于学术交流的平台应该类似于wiki百科、网站论坛、或者是博客,让研究者可以及时地,广泛地,互动性地交换意见,同时改进自己的研究和稿件。这样的体系也可以促进研究者摒弃一些消极的、非研究性的成分,譬如 被迫为了影响因子而做研究 。 摘用其中的两个图片: 图一 左图(A): 杂志作为投稿的首选的次数和杂志的影响因子成正比。右图(B): 稿件的最终发表杂志的影响因子和之前尝试投稿的杂志的影响因子的差别成偏态分布(均值向左移)。 (Journal impact structures resubmission patterns. ( A ) The number of times a journal was first chosen for submission increases with impact factor. The average trend is shown as a red curve (±2 SE) ( 16 ). Multidisciplinary journals are highlighted in blue. One top journal per community is also highlighted (same color code as in Fig. 1 ). ( B ) The difference in impact factor between the publishing journal and the one previously attempted is strongly skewed to negative values ( N = 18,078). Mean difference in log impact factor: –0.23, representing a 42% reduction on the natural scale. This differs from random graphs where the previously attempted journal was selected uniformly (dashed line) or in proportion to the values in panel A (solid line).) 图二 左图(A): 第一稿就被接受的文章的引用率低于经过多次投稿的文章。右图(B): 如果稿件重投的杂志不是同一个领域的,引用率会降低。 (Submission history affects citation counts. ( A ) First-intent articles were less cited than resubmissions. ( B ) Resubmissions were less cited if resubmitted between rather than within journal communities. Log transformed citation counts shown as box-whiskers plots (median/quartiles/range). P values from permutation tests controlling for year and journal) 研究摘要原文: The study of science-making is a growing discipline that builds largely on online publication and citation databases, while prepublication processes remain hidden. Here, we report results from a large-scale survey of the submission process, covering 923 scientific journals from the biological sciences in years 2006–2008. Manuscript flows among journals revealed a modular submission network, with high-impact journals preferentially attracting submissions. However, about 75% of published articles were submitted first to the journal that would publish them, and high-impact journals published proportionally more articles that had been resubmitted from another journal. Submission history affected postpublication impact: Resubmissions from other journals received significantly more citations than first-intent submissions, and resubmissions between different journal communities received significantly fewer citations. 原文附件 Calcagno_etal_2012_Flows of Research Manuscripts Among Scientific Journals Revea.pdf
论文有可能被拒。谁都被拒过稿。只字不改就接受的论文极少,即使是最优秀的科学家,最漂亮的研究,也照样可能被拒或者被要求修改。不要消极对待目标期刊拒稿和退修要求,而应把它视为发表过程的一个环节,其目的是为了让你的论文在科学上尽可能更健全,以便将来被录用为科学文献,并成为“集体知识”的一部分。 期刊拒稿有各种原因,大多数在本系列讲座的前文中已经提及。 比如,如果对拟投期刊的选择不当,就有可能不送去审稿便直接拒稿。期刊定位恰当才能增加稿件获得同行评议的机会(参见第六讲“选择合适的目标期刊”中的注意事项)。同理,拙劣的投稿信也可能造成不经审稿便直接拒稿(参见第三讲“如何写出吸引读者的‘cover letter’”中的注意事项)。违反目标《稿约》的规定可能被期刊编辑认为不尊重对方,从而造成拒稿,当然更可能的是被要求修改格式后再投。其他拒稿原因包括研究设计有缺陷、论文写作语言水平不合格、研究方法或统计检验选择或解释不当、结果叙述不当或夸大其辞、引言和/或讨论不客观公正或缺乏细节;或者就是缺乏新颖性(比如你的研究只是简单重复别人已发表的工作) 、重要性或相关性。投稿之前严格分析你的论文,考虑审稿人会着眼的所有要素,你就可能提前发现这些问题。照着本讲座系列中的经验来做,就能加快从初投到录用的进度,并让其间的各个阶段相对顺利。所以,在投稿前值得尽全力完善文稿质量,以减小拒稿的可能。 关于同行审稿和如何应付,可以考虑一下审稿人会如何处理你的稿件。不同的期刊对审稿人的要求各不相同,但是他们基本上都会要求审稿人审查你的稿件是否满足如下这些良好科研和写作的要素;如果你的稿件不满足其中某项,审稿人还要写出相关评语。 重要性 • 结果对该领域的重要性是什么? • 结果是否对会受到相关和更广范围的研究者关注? 新颖性 • 文中的主张是否足够新颖、因此值得发表? • 研究是否在已有发表工作基础上取得进展? 引言 • 是否提供充分的背景信息,让非本领域读者能理解研究问题/假说? • 研究的理由是否定义清楚? • 为论证本研究工作所引文献是否充分恰当? • 研究目的是否定义清楚? 方法/技术严谨性 • 所用方法对研究目的是否适当? • 叙述的实验信息是否完整,能让其他研究者重复? • 是否另需实验来验证该研究结果? • 补充实验是否能显著提高该文质量? • 对于已确立的方法,其引用文献是否适当? 结果/统计 • 结果解释是否清晰,表达方式是否恰当? • 图表信息是否必要,是否更易于用文字表达? • 插图和正文内部或二者之间数据有无重复? • 图表是否易于解读? • 是否需要补充插图以增加清晰性? • 有否使用适当的统计学方法来检验结果的显著性? 讨论 • 有否考虑数据的所有可能解释,是否存在也能解释数据的备择假设? • 有无在现有文献背景基础上适当说明结果? • 满足上述标准同时是否引用了适当的参考文献? • 有无讨论研究局限性? 结论 • 研究结论是否有适当证据支持,有无夸大? • 是否清楚讨论了结果的重要性/应用性/意义? 文献引用 • 所引文献是否全面客观,有无遗漏重要研究,有无过分引用某些研究? 期刊选择 目标期刊是否恰当? 语言 稿件行文是否清楚、因此能被该领域以外的研究者理解? 当你收到退修信和审稿意见时,应仔细研读其中所有评语(包括编辑评语和审稿人评语),根据需要在稿件中作出相应调整,然后撰写一份详细的回复函。通常需要返回修改稿和回复函(回复函和再投稿信可分为两个文件),并且需要在规定时间之前返回,否则修改稿将被作为新稿处理。编辑和/或审稿人的所有意见都必须回应,即使你不同意其意见。若你对某点持反对意见,应该礼貌并有理有据地反驳。在反驳时,可以引用某论文来支持你的说法(如该文不在参考文献中,可以考虑将其收入参考文献列表),可以解释为何某个实验是以某种特定的方式开展的,也可以是解释为何你不按照审稿意见去做补充试验。但无论如何,不要不理睬或忽略审稿意见,因为这只会导致延迟。只有所有意见都妥当回应之后,你的论文才有可能发表。 回复函最好的格式是把编辑和审稿人的意见复制下来,然后在各条意见下面逐条回应。审稿意见和回应要用不同字体加以区分(如正体和斜体)。当提到文中的改动时,给出页码和行号以便迅速查找。把修改前后的文字都复制在回复函中,让人一目了然你如何修改回应审稿意见。通常要在文中标记出主要改动之处以便查找,比如用黄色高亮和/或使用下划线/删除线。最后,若编辑或审稿人要求补充分析或者实验,你应该照办并把数据加入稿件;这会让稿件更富有说服力并增加发表的机会。 实例 清单 1. 不要带着个人情绪去看待拒稿;拒稿的目的是使你的论文更有力和更可靠。 2. 修改稿件来回应编辑和/或审稿人提出的全部意见,并在回复函中说明这些修改。 3. 按要求补充实验或分析,除非你认为这样做意义不大(在这种情况下,需要给出反驳意见)。 4. 对于你不同意的审稿意见,礼貌而地提出有根据的反驳。 5. 用不同字体区分审稿意见和回应。 6. 为回应审稿人意见而在正文中所作的主要改动之处要予以标记,可以用黄色高亮、加下划线,或加删除线等方式。 7. 按期返回修改稿和回复函,以免被当作新投稿处理。 Responding to peer reviewers: dealing with rejection Your papers will be rejected. It is inevitable. The percentage of papers that is accepted and published without the need for any revisions is very small, and even the best scientists, writing up the best science, will face rejection from journals or the need to make revisions before their paper is considered acceptable for publication. Rather than thinking of rejection from your target journal and requests for major revisions as a negative experience, it is important to realize that this is an integral part of the publication process that exists to make your paper as robust and complete as possible before it joins the ‘collective knowledge’ as part of the literature. There are many different possible reasons for rejection from a journal, and most of these have been described in previous tips in this tips series. For example, if you submitted your manuscript to an inappropriate journal it is likely you will receive a rejection letter without the paper even being sent to review. By selecting an appropriate journal (see tip on journal selection) you will increase the chances that your manuscript will be sent out for review. Similarly, a poor cover letter might result in immediate rejection without review, so submitting your manuscript with a good cover letter is essential (see tip on cover letter development). Failure to follow the instructions set out in the target journal’s Guide for Authors is another possible reason for rejection and considered insulting to the journal editors, although it is likely that you will simply receive an invitation to resubmit in the correct format. Other reasons for rejection include flawed study design, poor written language, inappropriate or incompletely explained methodology or statistical tests, incorrect description or overstatement of results, lack of balance or detail in the introduction and/or discussion, or simply a lack of novelty (for example, if your study simply repeats something that has already been done before), significance or relevance. By critically analyzing your paper prior to submission, and considering all of the items that peer reviewers will look at, you will hopefully be able to identify any problems in advance. By following the advice in the tips in this tips series, you will speed up the process from initial submission to publication and make the stages in between considerably less stressful. Therefore, it is worthwhile getting your paper into the best possible form before submitting it anywhere to minimize the likelihood of rejection. In considering peer review and how to address it, it is helpful to think about how a peer reviewer would have approached your paper. Different journals will ask different things of peer reviewers, but in general they will be checking for the following aspects of good science and scientific writing, and asked to comment whenever any of these criteria are not satisfactorily met in the submitted manuscript: Significance • What is the importance of the findings to researchers in the field? • Are the findings of general to interest to researchers in related and broader fields? Novelty • Are the claims in the paper sufficiently novel to warrant publication? • Does the study represent a conceptual advance over previously published work? Introduction • Does the introduction provide sufficient background information for readers not in the immediate field to understand the problem/hypotheses? • Are the reasons for performing the study clearly defined? • Are sufficient and appropriate references cited to justify the work performed? • Are the study objectives clearly defined? Methods/Technical rigor • Are the methods used appropriate to the aims of the study? • Is sufficient information provided for a capable researcher to reproduce the experiments described? • Are any additional experiments required to validate the results of those that were performed? • Are there any additional experiments that would greatly enhance the quality of this paper? • Are appropriate references cited where previously established methods are used? Results/Statistics • Are the results clearly explained and presented in an appropriate format? • Do the figures and tables show essential data or are there any that could easily be summarized in the text? • Is any of the data duplicated in the graphics and/or text? • Are the figures and tables easy to interpret? • Are there any additional graphics that would add clarity to the text? • Have appropriate statistical methods been used to test the significance of the results? Discussion • Are all possible interpretations of the data considered or are there alternative hypotheses that are consistent with the available data? • Are the findings properly described in the context of the published literature? • Are appropriate references cited in meeting the above criterion? • Are the limitations of the study discussed? Conclusion • Are the conclusions of the study supported by appropriate evidence or are the claims exaggerated? • Are the significance/applicability/implications of the findings clearly discussed? Literature cited • Is the literature cited balanced or are there important studies not cited, or other studies disproportionately cited? Journal selection Is the target journal appropriate? Language Is the manuscript clearly written so as to be understandable by researchers not in the immediate field? When you receive a letter of rejection and peer review reports from the journal editor it is important that you carefully study all of the comments (from the editor as well as the reviewers), address these in your manuscript as appropriate, and prepare a detailed response. It is usual to return a revised manuscript and response letter (it is also acceptable to separate the cover letter and responses into different files), and these normally need to be returned within a set period of time or the revised manuscript will be considered as a new submission. It is essential that you respond to all of the points made by the editor and/or reviewers, even if you disagree with them. If you do disagree with a point that has been made, you should provide a polite and scientifically solid rebuttal. This might take the form of a reference to a particular paper that supports your statement (such a paper might need to be added to the reference list of your manuscript if it isn’t already cited), an explanation of why an experiment was performed in a particular way, or an explanation of why you didn’t perform additional experiments recommended by the reviewer. Whatever you do, do not ignore or overlook comments, because this will only lead to delays. Your paper will not be published until all comments are appropriately addressed. The best format for a response letter is to paste in the comments made by the editor and reviewers and write your response beneath each comment. Use different font styles (for example, normal and italics) to differentiate comments from responses. When referring to changes in the text provide the page and line numbers so that these changes can quickly be identified. Copy the new or modified text into the letter so it is immediately clear how your changes address the comment. It is also usual to distinguish major changes in the text in some way, for example, with yellow highlight and/or underline and strikethrough fonts, to make them easy to identify. Finally, if additional analyses or experiments are required to satisfy the editor or reviewers, you should perform them and add the data to your manuscript; these serve to make the final paper stronger and will increase the chances of eventual publication. Example Checklist 1. Don’t take rejection personally; the object is to make your paper stronger and more reliable 2. Address all points raised by the editor and/or reviewers by revising the manuscript and showing the changes in your letter 3. Perform any additional experiments or analyses requested unless you feel that they would not add to the strength of your paper (in which case you should provide a rebuttal) 4. Provide a polite and scientifically solid rebuttal to any points or comments you disagree with 5. Differentiate comments and responses in the letter file by using different font styles 6. Identify major revisions in the text, made in response to peer review comments, with highlight, underline and strikethrough fonts 7. Return the revised manuscript and response letter within the requested time period to avoid your paper being treated as a new submission Dr Daniel McGowan 分子神经学博士 理文编辑学术总监
最近读到一条有意思的社论,与大家分享一下: 众所周知,向期刊投稿的稿件数量要远远超出刊物有限篇幅内可以刊登的文章的数量,为了确保送交同行评审的稿件是达标的,审稿过程就显得尤为重要。ACS Nano 副编辑Jillian M. Buriak在最近一期(2010年9月28日) 的一篇 社论 中介绍了如何避免稿件在进入同行评审前被拒稿。第一,你的文章中是否有亮点足够吸引住读者的眼球。其次是新颖性、原创性,这与第一点紧密相关。有趣的是,这篇社论里面提到了编辑会通过网络搜索来判断文章的新颖性。第三,也是所有作者最容易实现的,就是使稿件的语言符合期刊的投稿要求。文章语言的好坏直接影响到读者对你工作的评价,评论中的一句话就提到如果稿件读起来就很松散,那么读者会自然而然地认为其科学性也同样松散。因此,提交语言过关的稿件以避免在进入同行评审前就被拒稿是至关重要的。有很多方法可以帮助你的稿件顺利进入同行评审,例如,在写作中使用简单易读的句子,让一位同事(两位更好)帮助通读全文,格外注意稿件是否符合期刊的投稿须知。语言清晰简洁、没有语法错误的稿件将为你争取到更多的机会让审稿人对文章的学术价值和作出正确的判断。 原文: As we all know, the number of manuscript submissions to journals vastly outweighs the amount of space journals have to publish. To handle this process and ensure that appropriate manuscripts are sent for peer review, the editorial process has become more important than ever. The editorial in a recent issue ACS Nano (Sept 28 2010) http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/nn1022318 by associate editor Jillian M. Buriak describes rejecting without review and how to avoid it. There are three points that editors use to select the best papers for peer review. First, does your manuscript have the wow factor, will it grab the attention of the journals readership. Second, which is closely related to the first, is novelty, is the work original. Interestingly, editors use internet searches, described in the editorial, to evaluate a manuscripts novelty. The third, and arguably the easiest to achieve for all researchers, is submitting a well-written manuscript that follows the journal requirements. The way a manuscript is written directly affects what people will think about your work, quoting from the editorial If your manuscript looks sloppy, then everyone will assume that your science is equally sloppy. Thus, it is imperative to only submit manuscripts of a high quality language and avoid being rejected without peer review. There are many ways to make sure your manuscript is not rejected prior to peer review including, write the manuscript in simple and easy to read sentences, have a colleague (or two!) read the manuscript and pay close attention to the journals guidelines for authors. By ensuring the manuscript is clear, concise, and free of grammatical errors will give the journal editors the best opportunity to judge your work on the scientific value and suitability for their journal.
前阵子本人将一篇论文投给一个杂志(级别不高,IF2点多),本来抱有一些希望的,没想到外审后被拒,下面是编辑部Decision Letter的部分内容: Dear Dr Zhan, In addition to myself, two expert reviewers in the field have evaluated your manuscript. I regret to inform you that based on this assessment, we are unable to accept your manuscript for publication in******. This is clearly an area of great interest and potential importance, we are looking for analyses such as you have attempted. Unfortunately, as articulated by both reviewers, there are flaws with the approaches of your design. I thought it easier to reject thisarticle in its present form as you may wish to submit elsewhere. On the other hand, if you want to do a major rewrite and perhaps reanalysis on the topic, I'd be prepared to consider itas a completely new article .************************* Prof. ****** Editor-in-Chief 遵照编辑的意见,我按照两位reviewer的意见将论文进行了大修,再次投到原杂志,没想到这次连初审都没通过,请看编辑部回复: Dear Dr Zhan, You previously submitted this ms to****** in a different format; it was reviewed and rejected. I regret to inform you that based on this assessment and earlier fair decision, we are unable to accept this particular version for publication in ************. It is unusual to handle a resubmission of a rejected article; kindly do not send it to us again . 回复的是同一个编辑,他之前的意见并不反对我将文章大修后重投的,而后来我真这么做时却直接拒稿了。 看来是文章的内容实在太次,编辑部都懒得处理了。 一声长叹。。。。。。
Dr. Daneil McGowan论文写作系列第十讲 —— Responding to peer reviewers: dealing with rejection Dr. Daneil McGowan 论文写作系列的中文版本终于与大家见面了,希望大家继续支持!译文见下方。 Your papers will sometimes be rejected. It is inevitable. The percentage of papers that is accepted and published without the need for any revisions is very small, and even the best scientists, writing up the best science, will face rejection from journals or the need to make revisions before their paper is considered acceptable for publication. Rather than thinking of rejection from your target journal and requests for major revisions as a negative experience, it is important to realize that this is an integral part of the publication process that exists to make your paper as robust and complete as possible before it joins the ‘collective knowledge’ as part of the literature. There are many different possible reasons for rejection from a journal, and most of these have been described in previous tips in this tips series. For example, if you submitted your manuscript to an inappropriate journal it is likely you will receive a rejection letter without the paper even being sent to review. By selecting an appropriate journal (see tip on journal selection ) you will increase the chances that your manuscript will be sent out for review. Similarly, a poor cover letter might result in immediate rejection without review, so submitting your manuscript with a good cover letter is essential (see tip on cover letter development ). Failure to follow the instructions set out in the target journal’s Guide for Authors is another possible reason for rejection and considered insulting to the journal editors, although it is likely that you will simply receive an invitation to resubmit in the correct format. Other reasons for rejection include flawed study design , poor written language , inappropriate or incompletely explained methodology or statistical tests , incorrect description or overstatement of results, lack of balance or detail in the introduction and/or discussion, or simply a lack of novelty (for example, if your study simply repeats something that has already been done before), significance or relevance. By critically analyzing your paper prior to submission, and considering all of the items that peer reviewers will look at, you will hopefully be able to identify any problems in advance. By following the advice in the tips in this tips series, you will speed up the process from initial submission to publication and make the stages in between considerably less stressful. Therefore, it is worthwhile getting your paper into the best possible form before submitting it anywhere to minimize the likelihood of rejection. In considering peer review and how to address it, it is helpful to think about how a peer reviewer would have approached your paper. Different journals will ask different things of peer reviewers, but in general they will be checking for the following aspects of good science and scientific writing, and asked to comment whenever any of these criteria are not satisfactorily met in the submitted manuscript: Significance What is the importance of the findings to researchers in the field? Are the findings of general to interest to researchers in related and broader fields? Novelty Are the claims in the paper sufficiently novel to warrant publication? Does the study represent a conceptual advance over previously published work? Introduction Does the introduction provide sufficient background information for readers not in the immediate field to understand the problem/hypotheses? Are the reasons for performing the study clearly defined? Are sufficient and appropriate references cited to justify the work performed? Are the study objectives clearly defined? Methods/Technical rigor Are the methods used appropriate to the aims of the study? Is sufficient information provided for a capable researcher to reproduce the experiments described? Are any additional experiments required to validate the results of those that were performed? Are there any additional experiments that would greatly enhance the quality of this paper? Are appropriate references cited where previously established methods are used? Results/Statistics Are the results clearly explained and presented in an appropriate format? Do the figures and tables show essential data or are there any that could easily be summarized in the text? Is any of the data duplicated in the graphics and/or text? Are the figures and tables easy to interpret? Are there any additional graphics that would add clarity to the text? Have appropriate statistical methods been used to test the significance of the results? Discussion Are all possible interpretations of the data considered or are there alternative hypotheses that are consistent with the available data? Are the findings properly described in the context of the published literature? Are appropriate references cited in meeting the above criterion? Are the limitations of the study discussed Conclusion Are the conclusions of the study supported by appropriate evidence or are the claims exaggerated? Are the significance/applicability/implications of the findings clearly discussed? Literature cited Is the literature cited balanced or are there important studies not cited, or other studies disproportionately cited? Journal selection Is the target journal appropriate? Language Is the manuscript clearly written so as to be understandable by researchers not in the immediate field? When you receive a letter of rejection and peer review reports from the journal editor it is important that you carefully study all of the comments (from the editor as well as the reviewers), address these in your manuscript as appropriate, and prepare a detailed response. It is usual to return a revised manuscript and response letter (it is also acceptable to separate the cover letter and responses into different files), and these normally need to be returned within a set period of time or the revised manuscript will be considered as a new submission. It is essential that you respond to all of the points made by the editor and/or reviewers, even if you disagree with them. If you do disagree with a point that has been made, you should provide a polite and scientifically solid rebuttal. This might take the form of a reference to a particular paper that supports your statement (such a paper might need to be added to the reference list of your manuscript if it isn’t already cited), an explanation of why an experiment was performed in a particular way, or an explanation of why you didn’t perform additional experiments recommended by the reviewer. Whatever you do, do not ignore or overlook comments, because this will only lead to delays. Your paper will not be published until all comments are appropriately addressed. The best format for a response letter is to paste in the comments made by the editor and reviewers and write your response beneath each comment. Use different font styles (for example, normal and italics) to differentiate comments from responses. When referring to changes in the text provide the page and line numbers so that these changes can quickly be identified. Copy the new or modified text into the letter so it is immediately clear how your changes address the comment. It is also usual to distinguish major changes in the text in some way, for example, with yellow highlight and/or underline and strikethrough fonts, to make them easy to identify. Finally, if additional analyses or experiments are required to satisfy the editor or reviewers, you should perform them and add the data to your manuscript; these serve to make the final paper stronger and will increase the chances of eventual publication. Example Checklist Don’t take rejection personally; the object is to make your paper stronger and more reliable Address all points raised by the editor and/or reviewers by revising the manuscript and showing the changes in your letter Perform any additional experiments or analyses requested unless you feel that they would not add to the strength of your paper (in which case you should provide a rebuttal) Provide a polite and scientifically solid rebuttal to any points or comments you disagree with Differentiate comments and responses in the letter file by using different font styles Identify major revisions in the text, made in response to peer review comments, with highlight, underline and strikethrough fonts Return the revised manuscript and response letter within the requested time period to avoid your paper being treated as a new submission 回复审稿人:冷静应对拒稿 论文有可能被拒。谁都被拒过稿。只字不改就接受的论文极少,即使是最优秀的科学家,最漂亮的研究,也照样可能被拒或者被要求修改。不要消极对待目标期刊拒稿和退修要求,而应把它视为发表过程的一个环节,其目的是为了让你的论文在科学上尽可能更健全,以便将来被录用为科学文献,并成为“集体知识”的一部分。 期刊拒稿有各种原因,大多数在本系列讲座的前文中已经提及。 比如,如果对拟投期刊的选择不当,就有可能不送去审稿便直接拒稿。期刊定位恰当才能增加稿件获得同行评议的机会(参见 第六讲“选择合适的目标期刊” 中的注意事项)。同理,拙劣的投稿信也可能造成不经审稿便直接拒稿(参见第三讲“ 如何写出吸引读者的‘cover letter’” 中的注意事项)。违反目标期刊《稿约》的规定可能被期刊编辑认为不尊重对方,从而造成拒稿,当然更可能的是被要求修改格式后再投。其他拒稿原因包括 研究设计 有缺陷、论文写作 语言水平 不合格、研究方法或 统计检验 选择或解释不当、结果叙述不当或夸大其辞、引言和/或讨论不客观公正或缺乏细节;或者就是缺乏新颖性(比如你的研究只是简单重复别人已发表的工作) 、重要性或相关性。投稿之前严格分析你的论文,考虑审稿人会着眼的所有要素,你就可能提前发现这些问题。照着本讲座系列中的经验来做,就能加快从初投到录用的进度,并让其间的各个阶段相对顺利。所以,在投稿前值得尽全力完善文稿质量,以减小拒稿的可能。 关于同行审稿和如何应付,可以考虑一下审稿人会如何处理你的稿件。不同的期刊对审稿人的要求各不相同,但是他们基本上都会要求审稿人审查你的稿件是否满足如下这些良好科研和写作的要素;如果你的稿件不满足其中某项,审稿人还要写出相关评语。 重要性 结果对该领域的重要性是什么? 结果是否对会受到相关和更广范围的研究者关注? 新颖性 文中的主张是否足够新颖、因此值得发表? 研究是否在已有发表工作基础上取得进展? 引言 是否提供充分的背景信息,让非本领域读者能理解研究问题/假说? 研究的理由是否定义清楚? 为论证本研究工作所引文献是否充分恰当? 研究目的是否定义清楚? 方法/技术严谨性 所用方法对研究目的是否适当? 叙述的实验信息是否完整,能让其他研究者重复? 是否另需实验来验证该研究结果? 补充实验是否能显著提高该文质量? 对于已确立的方法,其引用文献是否适当? 结果/统计 结果解释是否清晰,表达方式是否恰当? 图表信息是否必要,是否更易于用文字表达? 插图和正文内部或二者之间数据有无重复? 图表是否易于解读? 是否需要补充插图以增加清晰性? 有否使用适当的统计学方法来检验结果的显著性? 讨论 有否考虑数据的所有可能解释,是否存在也能解释数据的备择假设? 有无在现有文献背景基础上适当说明结果? 满足上述标准同时是否引用了适当的参考文献? 有无讨论研究局限性? 结论 研究结论是否有适当证据支持,有无夸大? 是否清楚讨论了结果的重要性/应用性/意义? 文献引用 所引文献是否全面客观,有无遗漏重要研究,有无过分引用某些研究? 期刊选择 目标期刊是否恰当? 语言 稿件行文是否清楚、因此能被该领域以外的研究者理解? 当你收到退修信和审稿意见时,应仔细研读其中所有评语(包括编辑评语和审稿人评语),根据需要在稿件中作出相应调整,然后撰写一份详细的回复函。通常需要返回修改稿和回复函(回复函和再投稿信可分为两个文件),并且需要在规定时间之前返回,否则修改稿将被作为新稿处理。编辑和/或审稿人的所有意见都必须回应,即使你不同意其意见。若你对某点持反对意见,应该礼貌并有理有据地反驳。在反驳时,可以引用某论文来支持你的说法(如该文不在参考文献中,可以考虑将其收入参考文献列表),可以解释为何某个实验是以某种特定的方式开展的,也可以是解释为何你不按照审稿意见去做补充试验。但无论如何,不要不理睬或忽略审稿意见,因为这只会导致延迟。只有所有意见都妥当回应之后,你的论文才有可能发表。 回复函最好的格式是把编辑和审稿人的意见复制下来,然后在各条意见下面逐条回应。审稿意见和回应要用不同字体加以区分(如正体和斜体)。当提到文中的改动时,给出页码和行号以便迅速查找。把修改前后的文字都复制在回复函中,让人一目了然你如何修改回应审稿意见。通常要在文中标记出主要改动之处以便查找,比如用黄色高亮和/或使用下划线/删除线。最后,若编辑或审稿人要求补充分析或者实验,你应该照办并把数据加入稿件;这会让稿件更富有说服力并增加发表的机会。 实例 切记 1. 不要带着个人情绪去看待拒稿;拒稿的目的是使你的论文更有力和更可靠。 2. 修改稿件来回应编辑和/或审稿人提出的全部意见,并在回复函中说明这些修改。 3. 按要求补充实验或分析,除非你认为这样做意义不大(在这种情况下,需要给出反驳意见)。 4. 对于你不同意的审稿意见,礼貌而地提出有根据的反驳。 5. 用不同字体区分审稿意见和回应。 6. 为回应审稿人意见而在正文中所作的主要改动之处要予以标记,可以用黄色高亮、加下划线,或加删除线等方式。 7. 按期返回修改稿和回复函,以免被当作新投稿处理。 在这里还需提请各位注意,Dr. McGowan 的母语是英语,无法阅读中文,因此请大家尽量使用英文回帖,如有任何需要与他沟通的学术和语言问题也请使用英语,Dr. McGowan 会及时回复大家的。 Dr. Daniel McGowan 曾任 Nature Reviews Neuroscience 副编辑,负责约稿,管理和撰写期刊内容。于2006年加入理文编辑(Edanz Group) 并从2008年起担任学术总监。Dr. Daniel McGowan 有超过十年的博士后和研究生阶段实验室研究经验,主要致力于神经退化疾病、分子及细胞生物学、蛋白质生物化学、蛋白质组学和基因组学。