{"id":47,"date":"2021-02-01T10:10:25","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T10:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/?p=47"},"modified":"2021-02-01T10:10:25","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T10:10:25","slug":"no-dealing-with-rejection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/index.php\/2021\/02\/01\/no-dealing-with-rejection\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No!!!!!!!\u2019 &#8211; Dealing with rejection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Jonathan Rix is the Professor of Participation &amp; Learning Support at the Open University.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-48 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Jonty-212x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"212\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Jonty-212x300.jpg 212w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Jonty-768x1086.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Jonty-724x1024.jpg 724w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Jonty.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 212px) 100vw, 212px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Rejection is at the heart of being a researcher. Most of us have accepted that the impact of our words and our work will be niche. But that does not stop us from dreaming dreams or from needing a bit of hope in our working lives. Submitting papers and applications is a key source of this hope.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Some personal pain<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The nature of rejection can be wide and varied. Here are three of my personal favourites:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>a major educational journal not sending a paper out for review because they felt an international study on Special Educational pedagogy did not fit their brief<\/li>\n<li>being rejected on the basis of things in the first draft, not the resubmission<\/li>\n<li>an editor agreeing with our reasons for not making a particular change but rejecting the paper on the basis of not making that change, because their policy was to follow reviewer recommendations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>(Shattered) Hopes and dreams<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some funders have a two-stage rejection process. You try not to get your hopes up for the first stage, but find they surge when you get through to the second stage \u2013 much as they do when you resubmit a second draft with major rewrites. Consequently, your hopes have even further to come crashing down when they finally say \u2018no\u2019. Perhaps worse still, is applying or submitting to those funders\/journals that you think love you already, because they have funded or published you previously. You can\u2019t help but feel confident. This rejection feels like a personal betrayal.<\/p>\n<p>In stark contrast are those moments of unsolicited joy, when offers come out of the blue. These are rare but magical. Once, I was rejected by a major funder having received their highest review scores. We despaired of the world. But three months later (having got over the pain) we got a barely-believable email to say funding had now been approved. How fantastic is that\u2026. but what sort of precedent has it set for my hopes and dreams? When can I put my hopes to bed and dream new dreams?<\/p>\n<p><b>Getting back up again<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Our response to rejection is a key part of our academic identity. I tend to spend a short period of time being very rude about the reviewers\/editors\/funders. This brings some sense of catharsis. I remind myself why they are wrong and what fine work it is. Then, feeling a bit better about myself, I copy and paste any feedback into the article\/submission and get on with reworking it. Annoyingly, almost invariably, the subsequent document is much improved.<\/p>\n<p>This determination to dust ourselves down and get back up again, to re-engage with hope, is a key strength in building a successful research profile. This is why a few years ago having been rejected by a major US journal, I received an acceptance email from an even higher ranked US journal (after four resubmissions) with a note from the editor telling me they were surprised I managed it.<\/p>\n<p>The great thing about rejection is getting over it.<\/p>\n<p>How else do you show them you were right all along?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-49 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Jonty-2-188x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"188\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Jonty-2-188x300.jpg 188w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Jonty-2-768x1229.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Jonty-2-640x1024.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Jonty-2.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 188px) 100vw, 188px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/people\/jrmr2#tab3\"><em>Jonathan Rix<\/em><\/a> <em>is the Professor of Participation &amp; Learning Support at the Open University. <\/em><em>His research interests focus upon: policies, practices and language that facilitate inclusion within the mainstream; capturing diverse perspectives; and developing models to facilitate our thinking about the form and function of education.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jonathan Rix is the Professor of Participation &amp; Learning Support at the Open University. Rejection is at the heart of being a researcher. Most of us have accepted that the impact of our words and our work will be niche. But that does not stop us from dreaming dreams or from needing a bit of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/index.php\/2021\/02\/01\/no-dealing-with-rejection\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">\u2018No!!!!!!!\u2019 &#8211; Dealing with rejection<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/erc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}