Video: Types of Research Paper Rejection and the Role of Peer Review

If you have submitted your research papers to journals, you must be familiar with the concept of peer review and its role in research paper rejection. However, rejection can also happen before peer review, and these are called desk rejections. 

This video explains how your research paper gets assessed after submission. Here’s a flowchart to help you understand the process easily. 

Remember that peer reviewers only provide their assessment of your paper to the editorial board. While peer reviewers do have the right to recommend whether the paper should be (a) accepted with minor revisions, (b) accepted with major revisions, or (c) rejected, they are not the decision-makers. The final decision of manuscript acceptance/rejection always rests with the journal’s editor-in-chief or the editorial board.