Top Reasons for Research Paper Rejection | Preliminary State Rejection | Revision State Rejection

Top Reasons for Research Paper Rejection. The rejection of a research paper is very common in the research process. There are many reasons behind the rejection of the paper. But if one understands all these reasons then he/ she can convert these rejections into acceptance. Getting a rejection of the research paper is not demotivating or demoralizing. But actually, it enhances your knowledge regarding your weakness in research. Here we will understand all the major reasons behind the rejection of a research paper. 

There are mainly two stages, where the research paper is rejected. The research paper is rejected in either in the preliminary stage or in the revision stage. Let's discuss one by one.

1. Preliminary Stage: There are two main reasons that are responsible for the rejection of a research paper in the preliminary stage i.e. Elementary and technical reasons. The elementary reasons are basic reasons where the research paper is rejected at the Editor desk itself without looking into the content of the paper. When the research paper passes the basic step then it is checked technically (BASIC TECHNICAL ISSUES).

Elementary reasons

• Plagiarism in the research paper: This is one of the most common reasons for the rejection of research paper in the initial stage. First and foremost the author needs to check the plagiarism before submitting the paper in any journal. Plagiarism should not be more than 15%. 

• Aim and scope (theme) of the journal: The research paper should not be submitted in any journal blindly. It is highly necessary to check the aim and scope of that journal where you are submitting the paper. If the domain of your paper comes under the scope of the journal, then only submit the paper there, otherwise, it will be rejected.

• The paper is under review in another journal: Never submit the research paper in more than one journal at the same time. How well you have written the paper, but if by any means the Editor gets to know that the same paper has been submitted in any other journal also then he simply rejects the paper. Sometimes he can even ban the author from that publisher. Submitting the paper in multiple journals is against research ethics.

• Linguistic and grammatical mistakes: The use of jargon and poor English is also a very common reason for rejection of the research paper. After writing the research paper, it is a must to proofread it multiple times. Sometimes a good and highly technical research paper got rejected due to poor English. Therefore it is mandatory to check the linguistic and grammatical errors before submitting the paper,

• Journal formatting guidelines: There are some journals that reject the papers if their manuscript is not prepared/ formatted as per journal formatting guidelines. It is important to decide first that in which journal the author is targeting to submit the paper, then he should read the journal formatting guidelines. After that, the author should write the paper as per journal formatting guidelines.

Technical reasons

• Poor or no validation: This is a common issue for the research paper rejection which is done by many authors. If the author proposes any new technique in the research paper but that technique is not properly validated or not validated. In this scenario, the paper is rejected at the Editor desk itself.

• In-correct research methodology: When authors apply very old and traditional methods in their paper then also the research paper is rejected. This happens when there are many latest techniques available but still, the author applies old methods. This causes paper rejection. 

• In-conclusive results: When the final results shown by the author don't match the hypothesis/objective of the paper, or the conclusion part is not properly explained, then this causes paper rejection. 

• Lack of proper citations: This is also a very common error done by many authors that their research paper got rejection. When the author takes help from many research papers but did not cite them in a proper way or do not cite them at all. This also causes research paper rejection. The research papers should be cited in the same referencing style mentioned in the journal formatting guidelines.

2. Revision Stage: If the research paper goes under review, then it is now going to be investigated by 2-5 reviewers. If the research paper still got rejected at this stage by the reviewers then some of the major reasons for rejection are as below:

• The technical strength of the research paper is not good.
• Lack of novelty. The research paper does not propose any contribution to the domain.
• Weak introduction section. The introduction section does not properly explain the area of the paper, topic, hypothesis, etc.
• Weak literature section. The research paper does not contain the latest papers or relevant papers related to that field.
• The improper organization of the sections of the paper makes it difficult to understand the paper.
• The objective of the research paper is not well defined.
• Experimental results are not satisfactory. The comparative analysis is not done properly. That means either no comparison is done or, the comparison is done with very limited methods or, the comparison is done with very old methods.
• Use of very small/ limited datasets.
• Most relevant references are not included in the paper.

                              For more related topics, visit: https://www.gofastresearch.com/