Avoiding Desk Rejections When Submitting Your Manuscript

Scholars and researchers put a lot of time and effort into their manuscripts and would like to see their work being rightly recognized and talked about. However, in some cases, scholars submitting their manuscripts may get an immediate desk rejection without going through the journal’s review process. There are a number of things that you can employ to avoid a desk rejection and ensure that your work undergoes the review process and is accepted in a reputable journal for others to read.

Picking the Right Journal

Choosing a journal or publication that is reputable and is known for publishing research articles similar to yours is essential to getting your manuscript accepted for publication. There are many different journals that are used for various research areas. If you submit a manuscript about research that is unrelated to the manuscript’s aim and scope, then you are setting yourself up for a desk rejection (Clemens, 2022).

(Read more about avoiding manuscript rejections!)

There are a few ways to ensure that your manuscript fits the journal’s aim and scope. One way is to go through the websites of the journals that you plan on submitting your manuscript to and reading about their aim and scope as well as reviewing the research articles they have published in the past to see how well your research aligns with the journal’s goals. Another way of doing it that is considered easier and more trustworthy for many researchers is using journal finder toolkits, such as the ones offered by eContent Pro. The free-to-use toolkit allows you to find up to five journals that match your research manuscript’s criteria. By covering these bases, you are ensuring that your manuscript will not be rejected based on “aim and scope” reasoning.

Following the Journal’s Submission Guidelines

Although matching the aim and scope of a journal is important, it does not mean that you will completely avoid desk rejections. When submitting your manuscript, it is also essential that your submission follows the guidelines that are often set out by the journal. These guidelines usually tell you about the content and formatting that are expected of a manuscript being submitted to that journal.

There are different types of manuscripts, such as empirical and essay, that may have differing criteria. Therefore, before submitting your journal, you should take a look at the criteria mentioned on the journal’s website. Also, it is helpful to check research articles that have already been published by the journal to see their layout.

Ensure the Manuscript Is Copyedited

Recently, it is estimated that 70% of the manuscripts that journals receive come from non-native speakers of English. Therefore, it may be common for English journals to give out a desk rejection while citing poor English as the reasoning. This could be disappointing for a researcher who has worked on the manuscript for a long time, but it is also important to note that this can be easily avoided by having a professional copy edit the manuscript.

(Read more about revising and resubmitting!)

The reason for desk rejections when it comes to the English language is that editors or reviewers are not there to correct English in a manuscript, so when they notice a large number of spelling or grammatical mistakes, they assume that the quality of the manuscript is poor. To ensure that you avoid such rejections, make sure to employ professional help to perfect your manuscript’s English. eContent Pro offers English Language Copyediting services catered for your specific manuscript.

Show Relevancy and Value

Using outdated methodology that is now considered inferior to recent research findings will likely guarantee a desk rejection, as it shows that your work is not novel and may not add much value to the existing scientific body. High novelty and impact to the current body of research are the two main indicators a journal uses to find whether a manuscript is likely to add value to its aim and scope and whether they should invest the time in reviewing the submission.

A professional copy-editing organization, such as eContent Pro, will help ensure that your manuscript checks off all these points and is less likely to receive a desk rejection. This will allow your manuscript to be accepted into a journal after being reviewed and will increase your visibility as a researcher by bringing attention to the valuable work you have contributed.

As publishing is an important pillar of building a standout research profile, it is paramount to make use of available editorial services, many of which are available on the eContent Pro website. Services such as English Language Copyediting, Scientific and Scholarly Copyediting, Journal Selection, and many other related services will greatly improve your chances of getting your manuscript accepted into a journal. You will find eContent Pro’s editorial services to be top quality, turned around exceptionally quickly, and affordably priced. Here are what our satisfied customers are saying about eContent Pro Author Services: