https://chroniclevitae.com/news/1900-the-stress-of-academic-publishing

Rejected again?! #*@&!!!!!!

“In 2013 a study of nearly 12,000 manuscripts submitted to peer-reviewed journals published by the American Psychological Association found that 76 percent were rejected, and at top journals, rejection rates soared over 90 percent.”

In this article, “The Stress of Academic Publishing,” Michael D. Dooley and Kate Sweeny, the former a fifth year graduate student in social and personality psychology the latter an associate professor of psychology at UC Riverside, bring to light a reality that keeps most scholars on edge and some on the brink of a meltdown. When you look at these kinds of numbers, it’s understandable.

Personality and psychology play a role in how well a scholar responds to rejection, but one can certainly be overly optimistic when new to the realm of academia. Rather than expecting acceptance of submissions for publication, the seasoned researcher is more pessimistic and actually expects rejection.

While I am relatively new to the game and still trying to adapt to the demands of a PhD student, I’m already a tad cynical about my chances of success in the realm of publications. I’ve done research for several professors who have successfully published using the bibliographies I had prepared for them, so does that mean I may have a shot at the big time?

Who really knows? It’s definitely a matter of pride to list publications on a CV, but I suppose it also matters which journals have published them. There is a hierarchy in all levels of academia, including journals and presses. As in the world of newspaper journalism, we tend to have higher levels of skepticism when we get news from questionable sources than from those, such as The New York Times, that have a long-standing history of credibility. However, even The New York Times has published many blunders and has regrettably had to retract articles. What matters then is the merit of the research itself.

Regardless of the journal, the group most eager to publish and oftentimes the most optimistic, as the article shows, is usually the population with the fewest publications on their CV: i.e. graduate students.

As graduate students, we’re always trying to distinguish ourselves from the rest of the cohort and it would seem that we’re either constantly being judged by our peers, or worse, comparing ourselves to our peers. Hence, the notion of ‘peer-reviewing’ keeps us all in check.

I know that I have a long road ahead and that there is much work to do, but the graduate school experience sometimes reminds me that there are still schoolyard bullies in the playground. Indeed, there is always some CV building bully that tries to be the strongest and let everyone know it.

Yes, academia is a competitive culture and I suppose if your heart isn’t in it, then it’s not for you. Some people will boast and rub their list of publications in your face, but even they too get rejected. I prefer to tell these blowhards, “Congratulations!” and move on with my work.

What we all need is to focus on our own research and do our best while being mindful critical readers and thinkers. Rejection may cause a lot of stress and anxiety, but it also motivates one to work harder and keep trying. Publishing will never be an easy feat, but learning how to accept rejection is as much a part of the determination to succeed as is getting that article or book published.