- Joined
- Sep 5, 2007
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Hi all,
I'm in a strange situation. I graduated with my master's degree last year and I'm currently trying (emphasis on trying) to publish my master's thesis. So far, I've submitted it to three mid-tier journals and it got rejected from all of them (one gave me an RR but ultimately said no). Before I submitted it the first time, I made major revisions. After it got rejected the first time and second time, I made almost all the changes reviewers had requested (except for a few where it was clear that the reviewer had literally no idea what s/he was talking about and the suggested changes were just really out there. In all three reviews, different things were criticized - things that previous reviewers had problems with were liked by others. I should note that all three journals were appropriate for my topic.
I know most of you would recommend that I just talk to my adviser and ask for advice. The problem is that while my adviser is incredible nice and really willing to help, s/he doesn't know much about my topic. I switched adviser's mid-thesis because my initial adviser had major issues. I don't regret that part because I wouldn't be where I am today had I not switched, but because my adviser really doesn't know the literature very well, she's not of much help and at this point also not terribly much invested (although she's always willing to be there for me, I just have to do all the work).
I'm not sure what to do. I'm running out of appropriate journals to submit this to and I'm really tired of making all the changes to not even get a revise and resubmit. I know that academia is a tough field and I'm not discouraged by it per se, but I feel if I don't have an action plan for this particular manuscript, I'm just wasting my time. I have considered asking my mentor at my current RA job but he's not very familiar with that particular subarea either, plus he's helped me a lot with other stuff and asking this would just be pushing it.
I'll be starting a PhD program in the Fall and my mentor there would definitely be the better person to ask about this. However, how would I go about this? If he spends an hour on reading through the thing and gives a few suggestions, then it'd be easy but my guess is that it may need more work. Am I required to offer authorship if the feedback is extensive and he potentially helps me additional analyses? What do I do with my thesis adviser?
Bottom line, how should I handle this?
I'm in a strange situation. I graduated with my master's degree last year and I'm currently trying (emphasis on trying) to publish my master's thesis. So far, I've submitted it to three mid-tier journals and it got rejected from all of them (one gave me an RR but ultimately said no). Before I submitted it the first time, I made major revisions. After it got rejected the first time and second time, I made almost all the changes reviewers had requested (except for a few where it was clear that the reviewer had literally no idea what s/he was talking about and the suggested changes were just really out there. In all three reviews, different things were criticized - things that previous reviewers had problems with were liked by others. I should note that all three journals were appropriate for my topic.
I know most of you would recommend that I just talk to my adviser and ask for advice. The problem is that while my adviser is incredible nice and really willing to help, s/he doesn't know much about my topic. I switched adviser's mid-thesis because my initial adviser had major issues. I don't regret that part because I wouldn't be where I am today had I not switched, but because my adviser really doesn't know the literature very well, she's not of much help and at this point also not terribly much invested (although she's always willing to be there for me, I just have to do all the work).
I'm not sure what to do. I'm running out of appropriate journals to submit this to and I'm really tired of making all the changes to not even get a revise and resubmit. I know that academia is a tough field and I'm not discouraged by it per se, but I feel if I don't have an action plan for this particular manuscript, I'm just wasting my time. I have considered asking my mentor at my current RA job but he's not very familiar with that particular subarea either, plus he's helped me a lot with other stuff and asking this would just be pushing it.
I'll be starting a PhD program in the Fall and my mentor there would definitely be the better person to ask about this. However, how would I go about this? If he spends an hour on reading through the thing and gives a few suggestions, then it'd be easy but my guess is that it may need more work. Am I required to offer authorship if the feedback is extensive and he potentially helps me additional analyses? What do I do with my thesis adviser?
Bottom line, how should I handle this?