Reducing Rejection Rates: Steps to Getting Your Articles and Grants Noticed

1. Reducing Rejection Rates: Steps to Getting Your Articles and Grants Noticed Oral Capps, Jr. Professor and Holder of the Southwest Dairy Marketing Endowed Chair Texas A&M University GSS Track Session AAEA Annual Meeting Orlando, FL July 28, 2008

2. Overview • Several past GSS presentations have focused on maximizing the likelihood of getting articles accepted for publication or alternatively minimizing rejection rates (e.g. Cramer; Shively; Irwin; Loomis; and Mittelhammer). I will attempt to summarize key points made not only from these presentations but also from my personal experiences over the past 28 years as an academician.

3. Overview • Far less information has been provided on reducing rejection rates for grants and contracts; I will provide some specifics based on not only my experience as an academician but also as managing partner of a consulting firm • I will stress common elements to writing journal articles and grants

4. Reducing Rejection Rates for Journal Articles • Identify timely, novel topics to insure editor, reviewer, and reader interest • Be clear about your respective objectives and hypotheses concerning your research question(s) • Provide a thorough literature review clearly differentiating your work from past work • Describe how your work advances the literature • Be clear about your methodology • Write clearly, concisely and succinctly

5. Reducing Rejection Rates for Journal Articles • Selection of the appropriate publication outlet (journal) is non-trivial and very important • Make sure your article fits within the purview of the journal selected • Follow journal submission guidelines

6. Reducing Rejection Rates for Journal Articles • Expect to write, rewrite, and rewrite again until: • The presentation of ideas and results are clearly organized; • The spelling and use of language are impeccable; • The theoretical and empirical issues are understandable to editors, reviewers, and readers; • The theoretical, methodological, and institutional logic is interconnected and internally consistent; and • The conclusions actually follow from your research findings.

7. Reducing Rejection Rates for Journal Articles • Pay close attention to the letter from the editor and the comments from the reviewers • Comments from reviewers generally are numbered; prepare appropriate responses to each comment as if appearing in court before a judge and jury • Try to accommodate reviewers requests for additional analysis, literature, methodology, etc. • You don’t have to do everything they ask • But carefully explain why you can’t accommodate their requests • Be cordial in responding to reviewer comments • Recognize that responding to reviewers and revising your article are both time-consuming and possibly frustrating activities; maintain a positive attitude as generally there is at least one nugget mined from any formal review

8. What Actions to Take if Your Article is Rejected • Rejections happen to all of us, believe it or not! • If you are not being rejected, then you are not writing enough • Do not fret unnecessarily over rejections; revise and resubmit elsewhere incorporating suggestions from past reviewers • Recognize that the distribution associated with the review process has a large variance • Challenging an editorial decision rarely works in practice • Many articles eventually are published in journals other than where they were first submitted • Rethink your article after several rejections • Reducing rejection rates requires persistence, patience, and laborious effort

9. Contracts and Grants: Where to Obtain Information? • www.grants.gov – Grants Available • www.usda.gov – Dept. of Agriculture • www.ed.gov – Dept. of Education • www.dhhs.gov/grants/index.shtml - Dept of Health and Human Services • www.hud.gov/grants/index.cfm • www.usdoj.gov/10grants/index.html - Dept. of Justice • www.ipa.gov/ogd - Environmental Protection Agency

10. Reducing Rejection Rates on Your Grants and Contracts Writing the Statement of the Problem • Use language as it appears in the request for proposal (RFP) • Present a formal review of past work from the literature on the issue • Include relevant statistics • Use descriptive words • Stay focused on the topic—remember the funnel • Create passion and urgency associated with the topic

11. Reducing Rejection Rates on Your Grants and Contracts • Present a clear, compelling argument for the significance of your proposal • A successful application is clear and precise, is easy to read, has a detailed methodology section, and is free of typographical and other errors • The contract or grant must be clear and written in such a way that a non-expert can understand the proposal

12. Reducing Rejection Rates on Your Grants and Contracts Give attention to important points: • Never use adjectives instead of statistics • Do use bold typeface • Craft eye-catching bar graphs and pie charts • Use of tables and maps can be very effective as well • If necessary use legends to improve communication from the graphs, charts, tables, and maps • Clip art should be avoided • Always cite your sources!

13. Reducing Rejection Rates on Your Grants and Contracts • Federal grants have very specific rules—so follow them • Use checklists provided by the granting agencies • Pay close attention to page limits and budgetary limits • Most forms from granting agencies now are downloadable, and all forms provided must be used without exception!

14. Avoid These Common Mistakes in Preparing Your Contract and Grant Proposal • Contract/grant proposal is too long • Too many complex words as well as typographical and grammatical errors exist within the proposal • The objectives are not clear • The proposal is full of technical jargon and acronyms • Insufficient justification exists concerning the significance of the problem • More work is proposed than can be reasonably done during the grant period • The budget is unreasonable • Page limits were exceeded • Vitae from principal investigator(s) were incomplete • Comparative advantage of the principal investigator(s) is not clearly articulated

15. Common Elements in Getting Your Articles and Grants/Contracts Noticed • A timely, novel topic • Clarity concerning objectives and hypotheses associated with the research question(s) • A thorough literature review clearly differentiating your work from past work • The ability to delineate how your work advances the literature • Clarity about your methodology • Documents are written clearly, concisely and succinctly • Expect to submit your articles to several journals and to shop your contracts/grants at multiple agencies

16. Final Pieces of Advice • Write • Rewrite • Write • Rewrite • Obtain formal REVIEW comments • Rewrite • Rewrite and • Rewrite again • Be persistent • Be prepared to rethink your article and/or your contract and grant proposal after several rejections