6 Common Mistakes That Slow Down the Submission Process
Advice From SAGE Open’s Associate Managing Editor Sara Parker
As authors, you want your paper to go through peer review and be accepted by journals as quickly as possible. As publishers, we want to provide authors with fast turnaround times while maintaining our journals’ standards for high-quality research and fair peer review. As the Associate Managing Editor for SAGE Open, I have noticed some common mistakes that slow down a journal’s initial checks as well as our ability to find suitable reviewers for manuscripts. Take a look at the following six common submission mistakes to help improve turnaround times for your next submission to a SAGE journal.
Abstract
Your abstract is the first impression editors, reviewers, and readers receive of your paper. It is arguably the most important part of your paper, so it requires you to make sure it shows off your research.
Why this is important: Reviewers may decline to look at your paper if the abstract is hard to read or seems like it is low quality. Once again, this means editors need to invite more scholars, affecting turnaround times, or they may send it back to you to revise before peer review begins.
What you need to do: Understand the journal you are submitting to and what type of abstract the editors want. For example, since SAGE Open is a global, interdisciplinary journal, the abstract should be clear about where and how the authors conducted their research and to what extent it does (or does not) relate to research done in other parts of the world. In general, your abstract should be relevant, succinct, informative, and grammatically correct. Ask a colleague to review your abstract or consider sending it to a professional editor.
Word Count
You may wonder why journals still have word count limits when many of them are published online. For example, SAGE Open has a word count limit to help maintain consistent expectations for our peer review and production teams, which helps us keep turnaround times down. For print journals, page budgets are a big reason to keep the word count to a certain amount.
Why this is important: Time is precious to authors, reviewers, editors, and production. I have seen reviewers decline invitations if manuscripts are too long and they do not have enough time to provide sufficient comments. This means editors have to invite more reviewers, which slows down turnaround times.
What you need to do: Check journals’ submission guidelines to see if they have a word count limit before you submit. If your paper is too long, determine whether you can eliminate words or sections without fundamentally changing the paper. If your manuscript still is too long, you may want to consider a different journal or a different format, such as a monograph.
Language
English language and grammar usage are essential for a quick peer review process. Many editors will reject or send manuscripts back to the authors immediately if there are too many language errors.
Why this is important: Reviewers may refuse to look at a paper if the language is too difficult to understand. They also may only comment on language issues instead of looking at the quality of the research.
What you need to do: Proofread your article before you submit! If grammar is not your strong suit, ask a colleague or professional editor to go through your paper. If English is not your first language, you may want to consider a professional translation or editing service, such as SAGE Author Services.
Fair Use
Just like you want your paper to be cited by other scholars, you need to make sure you are following the rules of fair use.
Why this is important: One of the most common reasons I unsubmit SAGE Open manuscripts is because authors have not properly cited, paraphrased, or quoted other published work. It takes editors time to analyze plagiarism software and for authors to edit their manuscripts after the original submission.
What you need to do: Make sure you properly cite all of the references in your paper, including any of your previously published articles. Just because it is your own work does not mean you can copy it word for word! If you need to use exact wording from another source (again, including your own published work), put it in quotation marks. If the other references do not need to be verbatim, write the ideas in your own words and include a citation at the end. You also may want to consider using plagiarism checking software tools, including those offered by SAGE author services, to properly vet your manuscript before submission.
References
Some of the most prevalent comments I see when manuscripts are sent back to authors for major revisions have to do with the literature review being outdated. I have started unsubmitting manuscripts for lack of recent references, so authors do not have to wait for us to find reviewers to make the same comments.
Why this is important: The scholarly community expects articles to include up-to-date information and literature. It shows you understand what research has come before you and that you are current in your field.
What you need to do: Make sure your literature review and references include current research from your field. While this may not apply to every topic or journal, we suggest citing research from the last five years.
Anonymization
Even though open peer review is becoming more popular, the norm still is single- or double-anonymized peer review. Single-anonymized peer review omits reviewer information from the authors, and double-anonymized peer review omits both author’s and reviewers’ identities from each other. Information about the type of peer review a journal conducts can be found on the journal’s submission guidelines page.
Why this is important: Anonymization helps prevent bias or conflict of interest during peer review. This includes gender, racial, and ethnic bias that potentially could harm authors’ chances of being published as well as new scholars’ willingness to submit honest feedback without fear of retaliation.
What you need to do: Before you submit your manuscript, separate your title page, funding information, conflict of interest statements, author biographies, and acknowledgements into one or more documents that are separate from the main text. If you reference your previous work, make sure it does not identify you as the author by writing in the third person or marking your work as “anonymized.”
Before you submit your next manuscript, consider these six common mistakes to help your paper pass initial checks and move through peer review as quickly and smoothly as possible.
If you need help with any of these common issues, SAGE currently offers prospective authors a 20% discount on SAGE author services with the code “SAGE20”.
