One of my manuscripts was "unsubmitted" and potentially rejected by the journal for the reason that it was submitted to a preprint server. Is it normal for the journal to reject a paper that was submitted in a preprint?
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3@TommiBrander Biological science published under De Gruyter. Most of my papers in the field were all submitted to preprint servers before I submit it to formal submission to a journal. This journal is quite weird to unsubmit my MS. Any suggestion how to appeal?– xavierApr 9, 2019 at 10:22
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26Don't appeal. That just wastes your time. Just find a more reasonable journal.– Maarten BuisApr 9, 2019 at 11:01
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4"Normal" depends on the field. Please include that in the question (not just the tags) and, assuming that biology varies in its practices as much as computer science does, you'll probably need to be more specific than that.– David RicherbyApr 9, 2019 at 11:14
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5@MaartenBuis "Appealing is a waste of time" is reasonable advice if the paper was 'unsubmitted' by an editor. However, if it was done automatically right after submission by the journal editorial staff (I mean, not the academics, the employees), then it would be a good idea to let the editors know that this happened, in case they aren't informed yet.– Federico PoloniApr 9, 2019 at 11:39
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8"unsubmitted" is not the same as "rejected because previously published on Arxiv". Please quote exactly what the journal has said.– 410 goneApr 9, 2019 at 12:43
1 Answer
Most journals now allow and even encourage the use of preprint servers. Some, however, still prohibit it on the notion that it is competition with their own publication of the article, or even consider it self-plagiarism. This tends to be field-dependent as well: some fields (e.g., physics, mathematics) are very liberal in policy, while others tend to be more retrogressive (e.g., chemistry, certain portions of biology).
The only way to tell a particular journal's policy, however, is to check the specific journal (the SHERPA/RoMEO database is also highly helpful, since it's easier to find the policies there and they have been pre-interpreted by experts).
If you have, indeed, been prohibited from submission due to a journal's policy on preprints, my only advice is to find another that allows it.
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3I checked the Journal in SHERPA/RoMEO database and it's under RoMeo Yellow publishers. It says "author can archive pre-print (ie pre-refereeing)" so pre-prints are allowed? correct me if Im wrong about my interpretation– xavierApr 9, 2019 at 10:28
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8Apparently the database is wrong in this case. Mistakes happen, it is a large database after all, and it summarizes complex policies into 4 color codes. So consider that database a starting point when searching for journals, but don't rely on it. Apr 9, 2019 at 11:00
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11@xavier Did you check if the journal had any preprint policy (or "policy on prior publication" or similar) on their website? Clearly that would override any listing in a third-party database.– AnyonApr 9, 2019 at 12:02
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1@xavier By third-party database I meant the SHERPA/RoMEO one, which the journal would be unlikely to mention in its policies. Anyway, I guess you could sit back and wait for their reply for now.– AnyonApr 9, 2019 at 12:50