Q: Should I submit my paper to an affiliate open access journal after rejection?
My manuscript was rejected by a journal after review, but the reviewer’s comment was helpful and recommended me the submission to its affiliate open journal. The impact factor of the original journal is 0.8, and the affiliate open journal is 1.8. I am reluctant to pay an article processing charge, but would the possibility of accept be increased if I transfer my manuscript to the affiliate open journal? This is my very first submission to a journal, so I want to make something achieved asap. By the way, actually, I had mistakenly put the button “Not transfer to open journal”. Can I correct it if I send an email to the editorial office?
Since the reviewer has recommended submission to the affiliate journal, it is probably more suitable for your paper in terms of scope, target audience, etc. In addition, publishing in an open access journal will give your paper maximum outreach. So, even if you have to pay the article processing charges, it will be beneficial for your paper.
It is difficult to predict whether the paper stands a better chance of acceptance. but as mentioned earlier, the reviewer must have had some reasons for recommending this journal. I suggest you take a look at the journal's website. If you feel it is a good match for your paper, you can consider submitting to the journal. However, since you want to publish ASAP, it would be best to send a pre-submission inquiry to the journal to avoid wasting time. If the editor shows interest in your paper, you can at least hope that it will have a better chance of acceptance. Even if the editor is not interested, you will know for sure that you should not submit to this journal and can submit your paper to some other journal.
Regarding your second question, you can write to the editor saying that you pressed the “Not transfer to open journal” button by mistake and informing him/her of your preference.
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