EDULITE: Journal of English Education, Literature and Culture
Vol 11, No 1 (2026): February 2026

Dealing with journal review results: How successful and productive authors avoid and respond to manuscript rejections

Arsyad, Safnil (Unknown)
Zaim, Muhammad (Unknown)
Othman, Juliana (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
05 Mar 2026

Abstract

Both early-career writers and authors with more experience may get rejected when they submit a manuscript to a distinguished or high impact journal; however, different authors may respond to rejections differently and this will determine whether or not an author is successful and publish a lot of articles in good journals. This study is aimed at investigating how productive authors react to article rejections they obtain from journal editors. This study used a qualitative approach and inductive coding data analysis techniques and processes were used to examine the data from semi-structured interview. Ten productive authors in the field of education from Malaysia and Indonesia were interviewed using a semi-structured interview to get the data. The results show that: 1) when responding to a rejection, most authors revised their manuscripts following editor or reviewers’ comments and corrections before submitting it to another journal with a lower ranking or Quartile value, 2) the major factor causing a rejection according to the respondents is a manuscript which is very similar or a duplicate of an already published one, and 3) the major factor causing a rejection according to the respondents is a manuscript which is very similar or a duplicate of an already published one.. Thus, productive authors keep writing although their manuscripts often got rejected by journals because authors learn from comments and corrections from editors and/or reviewers. Novice authors should not give up writing and revising their manuscripts although they often experience rejections from journals’ reviewers and/or editors. 

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Journal Info

Abbrev

edulite

Publisher

Subject

Education

Description

EduLite Journal of English Education, Literature and Culture is a blind peer review international journal which publishes manuscripts within the fields of teaching English as a first, second or foreign language, English language teaching and learning, English language teachers' training and ...