Q: Does my rejection letter suggest that I will get a second chance?
Yesterday, I got an email from the journal editor. It states that my paper has been rejected: "After careful consideration in the editorial board, we regret to inform you that your paper is rejected for publication as its present form." But, this morning, I re-read again the email carefully and found this statement: "We encourage you to resubmit the paper after revising it according to the reviewers' comments". So I got confused, does it mean my manuscript is not totally outright rejected? Do I still have a second chance? Thank you so much for your response.
This is a case of rejection with a request to revise and resubmit as a new submission. This kind of rejection is becoming increasingly common in cases of major revisions that might take time. So basically, the journal editor thinks that your paper has some merit, but does not want to rush you with the revisions by providing a deadline. You can revise the manuscript as suggested and submit it as a new submission. When you submit it the second time, make sure you provide the previous manuscript id and point-by-point responses to the reviewer comments. So, to answer your question, you still do have a chance! All the best!
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This content belongs to the Journal submission & peer review Stage