Rejection letters

Civility costs nothing. But try telling that to the editors of academic journals whose rejection letters appear to be getting ruder, more sarcastic and increasingly scathing, writes Jessica Shepherd in the Times Higher. A straw poll of bruised academics by The Times Higher has uncovered some the most offensive rejection slips sent by journals.

One lecturer expressed his outrage after receiving the following response - on Christmas Eve: "This text speaks in an overtly technical language as if convinced that any text can be made 'academic' by using difficult technical terms in a highly complex grammatical structure."
Another candid response went as follows: "What all this might have to do with philosophy, let alone Martin Heidegger, remains unclear."

Another rejection sent to an academic by a Chinese economics journal has now become academic folklore. It reads: "We have read your manuscript with boundless delight. If we were to publish your paper it would be impossible for us to publish any work of a lower standard. And as it is unthinkable that in the next thousand years we shall see its equal, we are, to our regret, compelled to return your divine composition and beg you a thousand times to overlook our short sight and timidity."

This is an extract from the Times Higher, 19 May 2006.