Having difficulty publishing? We’ve all been there!

At one point or another, we have all experienced difficulties publishing a paper, whether it was due to repeated rejections or experiencing writer’s block. In such instances, it is easy to feel isolated and not realize how common these experiences may be. As a step towards enhancing the transparency of the publication process, the SPSP student committee collected data from members of the SPSP community regarding difficulties experienced during the publication process. Using an online survey, members (N = 27) identified at least one first-authored paper that they experienced difficulties publishing and identified the specific challenges that were associated with that paper. The graph below depicts the frequencies for each of the challenges that were assessed.

Figure 1. Frequencies of experiencing different types of challenges during the publication process

Legend:

1. Faced multiple rejections at different journals before acceptance
2. Some other challenge that is not listed above
3. It was difficult to write (e.g., faced writer’s block, organization was difficult, conceptualization was challenging)
4. Took more than 5 years to publish from the time of the first draft
5. Totally different final draft from the original draft
6. Received extremely harsh reviews
7. It was difficult to find a journal that was a good fit
8. Went through more than two R&Rs at the same journal
9. Seriously considered abandoning efforts to publish the manuscript
10. Had collaboration challenges
11. Had to add multiple new studies/collect a lot of new data/ add extensive new analyses
12. Had to overcome bad writing habits to publish it
13. Someone else published a similar manuscript first, and we had to reframe
14. Faced dilemmas with authorship order

Overall, these results indicate that people experience various challenges throughout the publication process and some challenges (e.g., multiple rejections, difficulty writing) appear to be more commonly shared than others (e.g., authorship order, being scooped). However, it is important to note that these results are based on a small sample of individuals, and therefore this pattern of results may not be representative of the social psychology and personality society at large. Furthermore, it may be that issues such as authorship dilemmas and being scooped are socially sensitive and therefore, these may be under-represented in this project due to its public nature. In other words, it is possible that people may be less likely to disclose more socially sensitive struggles more publicly due to potential social repercussions and damage to relationships.

Another noteworthy remark is that for many of the publications, people tended to experience more than one challenge. This is portrayed in Table 1 below summarizing the different challenges that were experienced by each of these articles. Do you recognize any of these papers? Have they been important to your work? We are so glad these authors persevered through these challenges and we hope you will too for your work! All in all, experiencing setbacks is more common than you’d think and is, unfortunately, a part of the larger process of publication.

What to do when feeling discouraged because of setbacks?

1. Take a break. It is often helpful to step back from that specific project and shift your mindset to a different topic (if your timeline allows for this). Coming back to a project after some time can help you gain new perspective and alleviate frustration.
    
2. Seek advice. If you are feeling stuck on a specific project, it is often helpful to seek advice from others (e.g., colleague, graduate supervisor). It is very likely that others have experienced similar difficulties during the publication process and may have some tips to share with you.
    
3. Stick with it. If this is a project that you believe in, then you should stick with it! It may take longer to publish but do not let this discourage you. It is important to persevere and continue to believe in your work.
    

Table 1. Summary of challenges for each article (pdf)
 

Legend:

1. Faced multiple rejections at different journals before acceptance
2. Some other challenge that is not listed above
3. It was difficult to write (e.g., faced writer’s block, organization was difficult, conceptualization was challenging)
4. Took more than 5 years to publish from the time of the first draft
5. Totally different final draft from the original draft
6. Received extremely harsh reviews
7. It was difficult to find a journal that was a good fit
8. Went through more than two R&Rs at the same journal
9. Seriously considered abandoning efforts to publish the manuscript
10. Had collaboration challenges
11. Had to add multiple new studies/collect a lot of new data/ add extensive new analyses
12. Had to overcome bad writing habits to publish it
13. Someone else published a similar manuscript first, and we had to reframe
14. Faced dilemmas with authorship order