What should I do when my accepted paper is subsequently rejected?

Question

My paper was accepted for publication in a journal. I have also received an acceptance letter and even I have filled out the copyright form. The corresponding editor first told me "Your paper is published in one of the volumes of 2017" and next time said that my paper is "published in 2018", but now I have received an email that my paper is "rejected because the paper is not in the aim and scope of the journal"!!!

Really I do not know, what should I do?

It sounds like the journal messed it up very badly. Have you complained this to the Editor in Chief? — Nobody, Mar 07 '18 at 10:00
I don't have any advice, but just to make it clear, this is appalling. Whilst you were waiting for your accepted paper to be published you could have submitted it elsewhere. Be under no illusions, this isn't just a minor issue, you have been wronged and you have every right to pursue the journal in rectifying this matter (don't let them tell you otherwise). — Dr. Thomas C. King, Mar 07 '18 at 10:10
@noslenkwah It's irrelevant. It should have come up much, much earlier. They cannot drag OP out for a year with nothing to show for it (we are not talking reviews). — Captain Emacs, Mar 08 '18 at 03:57
@CaptainEmacs - Its by no means irrelevant. His question is what should he do. "What should have happened" is what's irrelevant. If the paper is indeed within the scope then its probably worth trying to convince them to publish anyways. If it is indeed out of scope its probably in everyone's best interest to submit elsewhere. — noslenkwah, Mar 08 '18 at 17:27
@CaptainEmacs Am I missing where he said it took a year? I just see the "published in 2017/2018" part. Which could feasibly mean published december 2017 then moved to january 2018. Probably not, but a clear timeline from the OP would be nice. (And that wouldn't make the wait any better) — , Mar 08 '18 at 21:54
@AytAyt Good point - I read "a year" (or at least a considerable period) into that. A clarification should help here. — Captain Emacs, Mar 09 '18 at 02:45
Thank you so much for all responses. The journal has impact factor of near to 1 (an ISI journal). It is published in a famous publication. I have written a letter to the Editor-in Chief, 10 days ago, but I have not still received any responses. — Ali Tavakoli, Mar 10 '18 at 05:16
Did you call to confirm about it? In such position reversal cases it may be alright to reply to the author directly about what caused changes. — Narasimham, Mar 11 '18 at 18:39

score 140 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 07 '18 at 11:40

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Check with the journal. Especially do this if the rejection email you received looks like an auto-generated email. No rational journal would act in such a way, so my gut feeling says there was a mistake somewhere, most likely human error. It is possible that, e.g., the final status of your manuscript was accidentally set to 'reject' instead of 'accept'.

answered Mar 07 '18 at 11:40

Allure

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Yes, simple mistakes happen from time to time, with our without automation. (Never attribute to malice...) – Kimball Mar 07 '18 at 13:26
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This is, I think, the most likely explanation. Someone was entering some data, put in the wrong ID or title or something, and set the wrong submission to Rejected. Or maybe someone was looking through the archives, noticed your paper, and confused it for a paper they'd rejected, and "fixed" the status. Or... point is, there are plenty of ways for this to be an honest mistake. Contacting them will let them either set it right, if it was a mistake, or prove how terrible they are, if it was intentional. – Mar 07 '18 at 20:24
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Allure, at the core of what you're saying is, "Make sure you have all the facts before acting." Always good advice. – Don Branson Mar 08 '18 at 18:29

score 103 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 07 '18 at 15:17

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This is unacceptable. If this is a reputable journal, then you can make the point that they made you wait and the research results become stale, and that you have every right to expect them to honour their approval for publication.

They simply cannot retroactively change whether the paper fits into aim/scope of the journal - that decision had been taken with acceptance. If they made a mistake in judgement, you cannot be expected to be the person to bear the cost of this.

If the journal is not reputable, you probably dodged a bullet - and if it is "reputable", and they insist on not publishing your paper after this protest, you can be assured that they are on the way to becoming not reputable, fast (I would, however, not make this point in your protest email).

edited Mar 07 '18 at 15:17

Ruther Rendommeleigh

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answered Mar 07 '18 at 11:35

Captain Emacs

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This is assuming that no publication fees have been paid yet. But if they accepted, you paid fees and then they say rejected then there may be a chance of this being a scam. – Daniel Mar 07 '18 at 14:13
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@Daniel Good point - however, most such scams take the money and publish, just that the publication is not worth anything. It wouldn't cost them much to just print the article, especially if they intend to continue the scam operation (as they seem to do, if this indeed a scam). – Captain Emacs Mar 07 '18 at 14:24
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... and if you can help accelerate that decline by going public about the affair if they do not get their act together, then your community will likely thank you. – E.P. Mar 07 '18 at 21:16
Aren't publication journals are private businesses? I thought businesses are allowed to engage in morally reprehensible behavior provided it is legal. I can't imagine the author can really do anything other than "beg." Of course, if the journal repeats this offense multiple times, their reputation will diminish. – QuantumDot Mar 08 '18 at 16:36
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@QuantumDot And, likewise, consumers (here, researchers) are free to boycott companies they dislike. Sure, it's not illegal, but their reputation will diminish, and that'll hurt them a lot. Also, if this is an intentional switch, then OP is now free to publish with one of the journal's competitors, which is a stupid business move. – Mar 10 '18 at 03:05
@QuantumDot Private companies are not some kind of omnipotent entities that are free to do whatever they please... – Mar 10 '18 at 12:42
There are several indications that this is not a reputable journal. For instance, why would an editor inform the author about the volume / year in which their accepted paper would appear? In any half-decent journal, post-acceptance work of that kind is handled by the publisher's production team. – user_of_math Mar 10 '18 at 19:04

score 25 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 07 '18 at 11:38

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This is pretty disturbing. You should immediately contact the editorial board of the journal and explain the situation.

I would also doubt the quality of the mentioned journal by looking at the series of events.

answered Mar 07 '18 at 11:38

Hospitantin

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score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 07 '18 at 20:23

You should contact the editor in chief and make your complaints clear, that is awful behavior on behalf of the journal. If I were you I would do it as fast as I could and I would take it as far as I could.

I wish you good luck and I hope it was a simple mix up.

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 10 '18 at 17:41

Yes, of course you should complain, and the editor and chief does owe you an explanation.

That being said, total devil's advocate (just because the other answers seemed to all have pitchforks ready)...

If there has been a change in the editorial team it is somewhat their choice what direction they take the journal. The (hypothetical) outgoing editor is partially to blame for making a commitment they couldn't keep. Taking a moment for empathy, they were just trying to help the incoming editor out by having stuff in the pipeline. The content of journals, their standards, their quality, their requirements all drift with changing editors. Maybe you caught someone new to that side of publishing... they're learning on the job and might not have really thought of this from your point of view. Try to be kind. :)

Chances are they just don't care. There are a lot of journals out there on the lower end making money by very twisted schemes that don't include concepts like ethics, scientific rigor, or quality. — Arthur Tarasov, Mar 12 '18 at 04:01

What should I do when my accepted paper is subsequently rejected?

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