DESK REJECT FILES
Do you need to declare AI use to a journal.
If you used a generative AI tool to draft text or figures, most journals want that stated in the manuscript. Here is what to declare and where it belongs.
Blog.
58 entries
RULE OF THE WEEK
Why Zotero's output can still fail the journal's own rule.
A reference manager applies one style file to the whole document. When that file was built for a different journal, every entry comes out tidy and every entry can still be wrong. Three common mismatches, and the check.
RULE OF THE WEEK
Data availability statements: the sentence journals push back on.
A passing data availability statement names a repository and an accession number. Why journals query 'data available on request,' what to write when privacy blocks sharing, and how the statement sits beside funding.
SUBMISSION KIT
Choosing Keywords for a Paper: What They Do, How to Pick.
Keywords feed indexing and reviewer matching, and the journal fixes the count. Here is how to pick terms that earn their slot and how to test them.
REVIEWER RESPONSE
Tracked Changes or Clean Copy: Which Files Journals Want Back.
Three file names, two actual documents, and one common way to lose a revision. What each version is for and how to keep the marked copy in sync with your response.
DESK REJECT FILES
Missing statements that trigger a desk rejection.
Declarations are a pass-or-fail screen run before an editor reads your method. A missing ethics, funding, or contribution statement can end the submission there.
SUBMISSION KIT
Ethics approval statements: the three parts editors scan for.
Editors scan an ethics statement for three facts: who approved the study, under what number, and how people consented. Copy-ready wording for every study design.
JOURNAL SELECTION
The transfer offer: how cascade journals actually work.
That rejection email with a transfer link is a publisher's cascade system at work. Here is what carries over, what it costs, and when to say yes.
DESK REJECT FILES
Do journals desk reject for formatting? What the first scan catches.
Missing line numbers or a stray footnote rarely kill a paper outright, but they can send it back before an editor reads a word. What the first scan checks.
RULE OF THE WEEK
Line numbers, page numbers, double spacing: what journals actually require.
Line numbers give reviewer comments an address. What PLOS ONE and Frontiers actually require for spacing and numbering, why the two rules conflict, and the Word and LaTeX settings that take two minutes.
REVIEWER RESPONSE
How to answer a reviewer who says your English needs improvement.
The comment attaches to your name, but it is the most fixable line in the report. Diagnose grammar, clarity, or structure, revise in that order, then describe the language work so the editor can check it.
JOURNAL SELECTION
Open Access or Subscription: A Career-Stage Decision Guide.
Gold, green, hybrid, diamond, or a subscription title. What the citation evidence shows, what each route costs, and how the decision changes at PhD, postdoc, and first-position stage.