Andy Pitman , ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes ( CLEX )

Rejection is difficult in any circumstance . It is unfortunately a part of science . But , at times , reviews of your paper , grant proposal or even poster can be unprofessional — at best . Photo credit : Photo by burak kostak from Pexels .

A great deal of time in science is spent writing papers and grant proposals . In both cases , one puts ideas on paper , defends the ideas with evidence and often with a very great deal of emotional energy . You are passionate about the paper and you know that it is awesome .

And then you get the reviews and those anonymous reviewers don ’ t agree . Sometimes , the reviewers find errors and provide constructive criticism that you can use to improve your paper or proposal . The rejection still hurts of course but at least you have something to work with .

Something that might not be obvious to all of you is that rejection is normal , and entrenched , and part of the scientific method . When I was doing my PhD I remember talking to one of the gods of my field — let ’ s call him Alan Betts — and his recent paper had been rejected . I was genuinely shocked . It had never occurred to me that people like him — people who were viewed at the absolute peak of his field — would have their papers rejected . So , it is not about ' rejection ', it is more about the process of rejection and how that is managed . So , what are some of the experiences across CLEX ? Here are some examples of rejection experienced from CLEX researchers :

• " My evaluation is that this manuscript should not be published in this journal , or in any other journal ." Nice . That was a paper by a CLEX professor .

• " Actually , Researcher X is on his soapbox , but this is not Hyde Park " …. and in the same review … " there is too much Greek ." Another CLEX professor .

• " I do not think it is a worthwhile contribution to the literature . I only continued reading since I was obligated to complete the review ."

• " The analysis is rather shallow and off-track in places ."