Video: Strategies to Maximize Chances of Paper Acceptance

What strategies can help maximize the chances of manuscript acceptance? In this video, Dr. Oliver Gruenvogel explains practical strategies researchers can use to increase publication success and navigate the journal submission process more effectively.

The most important thing is to spend time on selecting the right journal. This is really a big factor because your submission chances heavily depend on whether your research goes to the right journal. So, take enough time to search and shortlist journals before choosing the best one. But what exactly should be the strategy for this selection process?

Dr. Gruenvogel says, “Give yourself a process, give yourself criteria that you follow and make this data-driven and not gut-feeling driven. Comments from other people can be data, they have experience, so it’s important to take that in. Then it’s important to see what your needs are. You have all the time in the world, you have a reasonable manuscript, you have a position for a couple more years, you don’t need to rush it. Which would mean you can take a bit of a higher risk on their rejection rate, because you have the time to sit it out and go to another journal. Or is there time pressure on you. Do you need to get this published so you can finish up your PhD? Do you need to get this published now because you’ve practically run out of funding again and you will be out of the job pretty soon or moving on to another job? Is there a certain grant deadline coming up that it would be great that you have another publication out there? Then it makes sense to aim a little bit lower with a higher probability of acceptance of your submission.” Essentially, understand your baseline, your position, and your manuscript level when making the decision.

Also, get sufficient feedback from colleagues, supervisors, and peers when evaluating the true strength of your manuscript. Try to get different data points to be realistic rather than relying on only one person’s input. And at times, there could be factors that you cannot control. Often, researchers face challenges like unrealistic publication expectations, reviewer variability, and the unpredictability of peer review. Therefore, prepare yourself for resubmission if it comes to it.