Being rejected is NOT the end…Be positive!

In this story, Yunita Awang talks about her journal rejection experience and about how every researcher should be prepared to deal with this situation.

Rejection is not something that one looks forward to…it could happen not only in our personal life but also in our research journey.

Have your articles submitted to journals been rejected? Do you feel frustrated and badly feel the need to put an end to your research work when your article is rejected?

To some, the answer may be YES…to others it may be a definite NO.

I’ve had my articles rejected by reputable journals and I’d like to share that experience with you. In one of the cases, my article did go through the review process and a long list of comments and revisions was shared with me.

While revising the article based on the comments, I felt like I had to go through another round of correction for my PhD thesis! Although such experiences always affected me emotionally, I always believed that hard work is needed before one can be successful. This persistent approach really kept me going. It took me weeks to respond to the comments and re-submit the revised article to the same journal.

Of course, the re-submission was with high expectations that my paper would be accepted, considering my intense efforts to respond to the reviewers’ comments.

Unfortunately, things did not turn out as expected.

My revised article got rejected…And what feelings did I experience?

Sadness! Frustration! The urge to give up!

These were the mixed feelings I had when I was trying to deal with the idea of being rejected…but that did not stop me from going further. I kept telling myself, “Being rejected is not going to put me off my research interest. It can’t stop me from doing what I love!”

The same article was then submitted to another reputable journal and this time it was really worth it. The article was finally ACCEPTED!

So, for all the young researchers out there, being rejected for journal publication is part and parcel of the journey towards becoming a better researcher. Take it positively. Re-gain your emotional and mental strength after being rejected and keep on moving forward. Persevere. You will treasure these failures as they will make you more immune to the challenges in your research journey and make you a strong, well-rounded, and confident researcher.