Editorial Reject, Revise, and Resubmit — Please…

Seriously—PLEASE! Journals want us to revise and resubmit papers that are rejected because it benefits them in two specific ways. First, it gives the illusion that the journals are highly selective by rejecting material and then accepting it later as a new submission. The rejection rate increases which increases prestige in some twisted way which also seems to attract papers in greater numbers. Indeed, Wardle (2012) notes that journal acceptance rates in ecology and evolution are “plummeting”. Could that be an artefact of excessive use of “reject, revise and resubmit”? Second, it skews the statistics for time between submission and both first and final editorial decision. Again, this information is shared with potential authors, often via journal advertising material, thus attracting authors given th