Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Five Stages of Grief Over the Rejection of an Article

Denial and Isolation: "It's a good thing I didn't share with anybody that I submitted this article in the first place. So now I'll just pretend that I never submitted it at all."

Anger: "I hate this reviewer who is a total jerk and who only rejected my article because he has something against me. I also hate my discipline and all those nasty jerks who got their stupid articles accepted."

Bargaining. "Will you accept the article if I make these changes?"

Depression. "Who cares about getting tenure anyways? The world is empty and the life is meaningless so who cares about little things like rejected articles?"

Acceptance. "It might actually be a good thing that this article got rejected. It could use a lot more work after which I'll be able to submit it to a much more prestigious journal."

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5 comments:

Pagan Topologist said...

My advice: Submit it somewhere else, with only minimal revision.

Clarissa said...

Great minds think alike. :-) That's exactly what I did.

Anonymous said...

I have only experienced two stages: anger and depression. :)

Ol.

Anonymous said...

I'm sitting on not 1 but 2. I agree with Pagan Topologist. Minor revisions suck. Either it's fine as it is, or it's a thought piece toward something more advanced I'll write 2 years from now.

Clarissa said...

I got many compliments from the editor on the article. He suggested a very major change, though. And I'm not prepared to make it. So I'm grieving.