[kzz102]

In academic publishing, there is an implicit agreement between the authors and the journal to roughly match the importance of the paper to the prestige of the journal. Since there is no universal standard on either the prestige of the journal or the importance of the paper, mismatches happen regularly, and rejection is the natural result. In fact, the only way to avoid rejections is to submit a paper to a journal of lower prestige than your estimate, which is clearly not what authors want to do.

[directevolve]

It’s not an accident - if academics underestimated the quality of their own work or overestimated that of the journal, this would increase acceptance rates.

Authors start at an attainable stretch goal, hope for a quick rejection if that’s the outcome, and work their way down the list. That’s why rejection is inevitable.