Can I submit my paper to multiple journals at the same time?

[devildoc2]

Most of the websites for journals I've seen simply require that the paper has not been published yet.

Can I submit to multiple journals simultaneously? Then I can see which one responds the fastest and then cancel it at the other places.

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[b&ierstiefel]

Most of the websites for journals I've seen simply require that the paper has not been published yet.

Can I submit to multiple journals simultaneously? Then I can see which one responds the fastest and then cancel it at the other places.

no.

 

[devildoc2]

why not?

Like I said, I would cancel the other journals as soon as a I got a positive response from one of them.

The alternative is to sit and wait for 3 or 4 months while they review it.

 

[abeanatrice]

That's what everyone does. Sometimes it takes people years to get a paper published. I know my first one got published AFTER my second one. Most journals will have something that say it's illegal to do that, I think...but I know that if it's not written out straight up, it's implied. Whose to say that you're not going to have to wait 3 or 4 months to have people review anyway...very few journals actually have a quick turnaround if they actually send it to reviewers. And I'm sure that no one ever submits a journal article with the idea of withdrawing it...these journals are not your state med school. Plus, what's the desperate hurry?

The alternative is to sit and wait for 3 or 4 months while they review it.

 

[gizzard]

Turnaround time is getting shorter all the time. Lots of second tier (society) journals send everything electronically. The only time there's a delay is if the two initial reviewers disagree (one positive, one negative) and the editor has to get a third tie-breaking review.

 

[uclabruin2003]

most good journals say no. anyways to do otherwise even if you cancel is unethical.

 

[syrinx]

You can't submit to multiple journals. This is strictly stated in the "Instruction to Authors" in most journals. To do so would be highly unethical and would look very poorly on your character. Plus, haven't you discussed this with your mentor and co-authors? Surely they would laugh at such a thought. Turnaround time is always a concern. Several times I had a paper ready but feared being scooped by another group. You want to send it to the best journal possible but this is at the risk of several months of review and ultimately a rejection. Some journal editors with allow you send them the abstract and give you a sense of your chances. Otherwise. look at a representative selection of recent papers in a few journals and calcuate the lag from the "received date" and "accepted date".

 

[Ottercreek]

Not only is it frowned upon, it's just generally not done.

 

[EggHead]

You really shouldn't do this from an ethical standpoint. Also, depending on your area of research, the same people could be contacted as reviewers and that would be bad!

 

[Amerek]

I don't understand what ethical standpoint you guys are taking.

It's kind of like getting a second opinion. You are responsible for the money invested in the research. You pay them money to read/review and possibly publish your research.

If one says no, and the other journal says yes, what's the difference?

Where is this supposed ethical dilemma? Provided that they don't specifically tell you not to do it.

 

[xanthines]

It would be unethical to ask extraordinarily busy people to go through the motions just for your convenience. The reviewers and editors are generally full-time researchers/physicians and would be really pissed off if they were spending their time for nothing. In a global scheme you are usurping someone else's reviewing time and a general strain on an already overtaxed system.

-X

Where is this supposed ethical dilemma? Provided that they don't specifically tell you not to do it.

 

[xanthines]

Oh yeah, that's what collaborators and friends are for!

-X

It's kind of like getting a second opinion. You are responsible for the money invested in the research. You pay them money to read/review and possibly publish your research.

 

[microTAS]

if both journals say yes, then they will both own your paper and figures, and you'll be in deep s***. If we're talking about professional journals with impact factors, you have to go one at a time.

 

[leverp2000]

What about papers for conferences? Are those considered the same way as journal papers?

I.e. can you submit an abstract or paper to a conference and then publish the same work in a journal?

 

[b&ierstiefel]

What about papers for conferences? Are those considered the same way as journal papers?

I.e. can you submit an abstract or paper to a conference and then publish the same work in a journal?

you can submit an abstract to a conference prior to the submission of that paper to a journal. that usually is no problem. however, there are copyright issues that arise if the abstract exceeds a certain number of words (well at least for one or two of the journals i've dealt with over the years).

 

[shinchan]

If the journals are peer-reviewed, it's a bad idea and not ethical (copyright issues). And you will piss off some important people or reviewers. And very quickly they will be on to this and will make your future miserable.

You can present the original data as an abstract at meeting, later on submit for peer review journal. Sometimes one research project yields many submissions and that's fine so long they are all about different aspects of the outcomes.

 

[shinchan]

I don't understand what ethical standpoint you guys are taking.

It's kind of like getting a second opinion. You are responsible for the money invested in the research. You pay them money to read/review and possibly publish your research.

If one says no, and the other journal says yes, what's the difference?

Where is this supposed ethical dilemma? Provided that they don't specifically tell you not to do it.

You can submit to second one after the first one rejects it. Not at same time.

 

[atsai3]

Most of the websites for journals I've seen simply require that the paper has not been published yet.

Can I submit to multiple journals simultaneously? Then I can see which one responds the fastest and then cancel it at the other places.

Please see the most recent issue of the British Medical Journal for more on this topic:

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7486/305

 

[DrYo12]

Something to note:

When you send your manuscript to a journal, the editors want to get the best and most appropriate reviewers for your manuscript. Chances are, these people are asked by more than one journal to submit reviews and if you have sent your manuscript to more than one journal simultaneously, the odds are not so unrealistic that your manuscript is sent to the same person from two different journals. Not good.

When a journal is making a decision whether to review your manuscript or not in the first place, they have many factors to consider, ie space issues in the journal, copyflow issues from the publisher, and content issues in terms of appropriateness for certain issues. So, if you send your paper and two journals accept it, chances are that both of them have already taken alot of other issues into account to accept your manuscript and will be pretty upset with you wasting their time. Not to mention if you ever want the journal to consider another manuscript from your group again--forget it!

Also, if you are resubmitting a manuscript to a different journal after having been rejected from a different one, don't forget to reformat. If you just send it in the wrong format for the journal you're trying out now, they will know that it was rejected from somewhere else and that does not sit favourably with the editors.