What to Do with Rejections?

Abstract

Rejection is part of the academic life, yet how to handle rejections is seldom discussed, and how to turn a rejected paper into a better and even publishable paper is largely ignored. At the same time, some of the influential papers that have been published have gone through rejections. We thus raise the question: How do we as researchers and journal editors/reviewers handle rejections? The proposed panel symposium provides a platform to engage with a group of scholars with extensive publication, review and editorial experiences. First, while the panelists will discuss the common reasons for rejection, the symposium will center around “how to” handle rejections, including how to handle rejections rationally and emotionally, and how to turn a rejected research project into a better, and even publishable, paper. Second, the panelists will share their personal experience as both authors and editors to illustrate how they have handled rejections.