Author Guidlines

Do you have a paper that''s been rejected from a peer-reviewed journal* in the mathematical sciences but deserves to be seen? Submit an Article to Rejecta Mathematica!Have you read a paper in Rejecta Mathematica that has moved you to respond? Do you have insight that can elevate that paper to a positive research contribution, or at least help others avoid the same mistakes? Submit a Correspondence to Rejecta Mathematica!*In fields where conference proceedings are the primary publication venue, Rejecta Mathematica will also consider these papers. Please see the FAQ for details.

How to Submit: Article

Article submissions consist of a research manuscript and an open letter from the authors.Submitted research manuscripts must have been previously rejected from a peer-reviewed journal in the mathematical sciences. Rejecta Mathematica places no conditions on the original reasons for a paper''s rejection; all papers that can be legally published will be considered. However, Rejecta Mathematica will not consider manuscripts that have not been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal but that the authors assume would be rejected.While Rejecta Mathematica takes a very broad definition of "mathematical sciences", manuscripts without a clear mathematical component will also not be considered for publication. We firmly believe that other disciplines have many papers worthy of rejection, but they are simply outside the technical scope of this journal. Please contact us if you are not sure about the appropriateness of your article in Rejecta Mathematica, or if you are interested in starting your own Rejecta franchise in another field.If you hold the copyright to your paper (as is typically the case if it has never been published elsewhere), you may submit the unaltered manuscript for consideration in Rejecta Mathematica. However, at your option, you may choose to make revisions addressing some of the original reviewer comments or improving basic readability (grammar, spelling etc.). If you do make any revisions, please indicate this in your open letter.Since you''ve already done the work and written the paper, submitting to Rejecta Mathematica is fairly easy. Please submit separate electronic copies of the research manuscript and the open letter. The open letter is a critical component of the Article (perhaps more valuable than the research manuscript), and this open letter will be published as written along with an accepted manuscript. Additional guidelines for each of these documents appear below.Once you have prepared separate electronic copies of your open letter and manuscript, please email them to editors@rejecta.org. At your option, you may also include a typical cover letter that will be read by the editors but not published. You can use this cover letter to include any additional information that will be helpful in evaluating your manuscript for publication. In particular, you must reveal to the editors the name of the journal that originally rejected the manuscript if it has not already been named in your open letter.

Preparing a Manuscript

We recognize that similar to a fine wine or cheese, many manuscripts submitted to Rejecta Mathematica may have aged before they are ready for consumption. In some cases, this means that the original source files may not be available in a usable form and so formatting may not be easily changed. In light of this, Rejecta Mathematica has no strict formatting requirements for manuscripts. We do ask that documents have a professional, publication-ready appearance. If possible, please remove any page numbers from your document as well as any references to the original journal from which the paper was rejected. The following electronic formats are preferred: .tex, .pdf, .ps, or .doc. Please contact the editors in advance if you would like to use a different format.For your convenience, we suggest (but do not require) using this LaTeX template when it is possible. To see this template in action, see this example which was generated using SCIgen and which was created using these tex and bib files. (Note that this is an example of a submission that we would not consider for publication due to its complete lack of coherent content.) If you prefer to submit your manuscript in another format, please attempt to emulate this style to the extent possible.

Preparing an Open Letter

As an author, you are generally expected to address two main points in your open letter:

• Discuss the original review process, including the apparent reason for the paper''s rejection.
• State the case (in spite of the rejection) for the paper''s value to the mathematical community.

Additionally, you must reveal:

• any known errors in the paper (or accidental rederivations of earlier work)
• any changes you have made since the paper was previously rejected (though making such changes is not required)

You may name the original journal from which your paper was rejected. You must disclose this information to the Rejecta Mathematica editors, but it will not appear in print unless mentioned in your open letter.This article, documenting one author''s experience with rejection, also serves as a stellar example of what can be communicated in an open letter. Shorter letters are of course acceptable.We understand that many authors may be frustrated with the review process in general, or the reviews of their paper specifically. We encourage candid discussion of the review process in the open letter if the author maintains at least a facade of civility and respect. In particular, we ask that profanity only be used when necessary so that Rejecta Mathematica can be enjoyed by the whole family.We acknowledge that technical paper review is a difficult and often thankless job necessary for peer-reviewed journals to function. In that light, we want to respect the anonymity of the original review process and ask that you do not reveal any details that may be used to discern the identities of the reviewers. Additionally, while we encourage you to share quotes of especially priceless nuggets contained in your original reviews or editorial communications, we ask that you refrain from quoting long passages that might not comply with the commonly accepted definitions of "fair use".Please follow the same document preparation guidelines as described for research manuscripts. Again, a LaTeX template has been provided for your convenience. A sample open letter illustrating the use of this template has been provided in tex and in pdf format.

How to Submit: Correspondences

In addition to rejected papers, follow-up correspondences (referring to papers previously published in Rejecta Mathematica) are encouraged from the community at-large and will be considered for subsequent publication. We especially encourage comments that may correct a mistake in a research paper (technical or otherwise) that would make it acceptable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Additionally, we encourage insightful comments that may help others avoid the mistakes seen in the original paper. Non-constructive criticism will generally not be accepted for publication.As correspondences have clearly been written in the modern era, we especially encourage you use the LaTeX template provided for correspondences whenever possible. To submit a correspondence, please email the document to editors@rejecta.org.

Editorial Policies

The screening process for publication in Rejecta Mathematica includes no technical peer review (hence the slogan Caveat Emptor); rather, papers are selected on the basis of their apparent potential interest to researchers in the mathematical sciences. The editors may consult with experts in a specific field on a case-by-case basis to determine the interest of a particular topic to the mathematical community.Due to the unique format of this journal, the editors reserve the right to accept/reject papers on the basis of several nontraditional and loosely defined criteria. Due to the lack of a formal review process, the authors may not expect to receive any specific feedback or criticism of their paper.

Copyright Information

Rejecta Mathematica follows an open access publishing model; all papers appearing in Rejecta Mathematica are immediately made freely available via this website. The authors retain the copyright to their work, and users are free to download, read, distribute, and modify the work as long as the original authors and source are properly attributed. For an example of peer-reviewed journals following the open-access model (along with a detailed discussion of the importance of open-access), we encourage you to visit the Public Library of Science (PLoS).Works are published in Rejecta Mathematica under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial license. You can view a human-readable summary of the license here and the full legal license here.