How do deal with rejection

Post Doc Mentor (PDM) and I submitted an abstract based on a manuscript we have in progress for a special issue of a sub-field journal. Basically the process was send and abstract, we'll review them and then pick our favorites to submit a full manuscript to be peer reviewed.

It was my idea to submit and PDM told me that they believed we were underselling the paper but that it was a good way to kick us into gear in finishing the paper so we submitted.

As it turns out they rejected us. It was a nice rejection letter, they got way more abstracts than they expected and encouraged us to send our work to this journal or another journal as they thought it was worthy of publication. I sent PDM the rejection letter saying bummer, we should submit to the other journal they thought was better suited for us.

PDM's response:

we should be relieved -- (name of journal we submitted to) sucks. it is always better to
spend the time getting the paper into a good journal that people actually read.

I was laughing my ass off when I read PDM's response. I should mention that PDM is extremely successful, amazing publication record, ivy league job, very well known and liked in our field so they kinda know what they're talking about. :)

I almost wanted to send PDM's response back to the Special Issue editor. LOL

I did it!!

I submitted my dissertation manuscript for publication today!! I am so excited, I plowed through my lathargy and worked all morning.

It's at the #3 journal in my field and I think it's a really good fit for that journal.

I was nervous to submit this paper in a way I have never been. First, it's my first sole authored paper so that's huge. Second, I have had a dry spell with pubs lately (so think good publishing thoughts for me).

Last it's the work I feel most attached to so letting outsiders review it critically is a little nerve wracking (mind you, I have a think skin and have never really be upset by even the harshest reviews I've received). And I presented it at a conference and it got a ton of attention and people seemed really excited about it so I do not logically have a good reason for the nerves.

I just hope I don't have to wait 6 months for a rejection like I did with the last paper I submitted to this journal.

Do Nothing Day

Hubby and I haven't had one of these days in forever. We're hardly ever home at the same time so today was a hang out in your PJs, watch crappy TV and listen to the rain come down kinda day. I've done a little laundry and heated up left overs for us for lunch.

Tonight we're headed to dinner (gift certificate from Christmas) and a movie. Just what we needed.

Oh, and while Hubby was sleeping I actually did some writing this afternoon. I'm hoping to get some serious writing done tomorrow so I can still meet my goal of submitting my dissertation manuscript before the end of the year.

Weekend Working

I did not get together with my WP this weekend, but that doesn't mean I haven't done any work.

I have acquired a new love and appreciation for my lap top. I know the weekend is keen writing time for me given that I have to work on actual ANJ work when I'm at work during the week but I hate the isolated feeling of working when everyone else is relaxing on the weekend. So, to ease some of those feelings I spent yesterday sitting on my couch "watching" college football while revising my dissertation manuscript on my lap top. Sure, I can't do some of the heavier thinking writing/revising that I'd be able to do in the office by myself but I have a fair amount of low level revising to do that is perfectly doable while listening to the game and hanging out with DH and any other friends/family who may be over. I spent a few hours and revised a good amount of the introduction (which really needed it!) and the methods of Study 1.

This morning I am again camped out on my couch. Just finished writing a letter of recommendation for one of my outstanding summer interns and now I'm going to either do some more manuscript revising or do some data stuff for Post Doc project. My NFL team plays at 1pm today so I'll probably work on the data stuff and save the manuscript writing for after the game.

I know that working endlessly is not even close to the ideal work/life balance but I'm getting there. I only work outside of the office when DH is working on the house and I generally do not work after I leave ANJ for the day. Oh, and if I take a weekend day off, I don't feel guilty. See, that's got to count for something right?

Today is HEAT day....

After 31 days of owning this house we will finally get heat!! You can read about our lack of heat here and here. I can't tell you how happy I'll be to get up in the AM and not see my breath when I breathe!

I am heading out soon to get my massage. I am really looking forward to it. I think I'm going to make it a monthly appointment. I need to start taking care of myself, and this is one step in the right direction.

After my message I am meeting my WP to get to work on InaDWriMo. I've decided to go with revising my first year project, it's closest to publication given that I have a complete draft and really good comments about revising. I have to think about how I'm going to make the word counter work for this project. Any suggestions I'd love to hear about it.

On a different note, yesterday was the shittiest day I've had at ANJ. I can't decide if I should blog about it or not. Something happened that made me really angry on behalf of other people but I don't know that I can post it here without giving away enough details. I'd love to blog about it as a way to vent so I'll think about it. Maybe once I have a little time away from the incident I'll be able to blog about it with less emotion.

Done

I sent my dissertation manuscript to my advisor/co-author. I worked for a couple of hours this afternoon and finally felt good enough about it to send it on it's way. I'm hoping this is the last round of back and forth between her and I so I can send it out. I already have a journal in mind.

WP and I already have plans to meet again next Saturday. I have decide whether I want to start the re-write of my first year project (FYP) manuscript (which has been rejected by 2 journals previously but I have really good reviews to work from) or whether I want to finally write up my follow up masters (FUM) short report.

FYP is a good paper and will be published eventually, I just haven't quite found the right way to frame it, reviewers are generally positive so I just need to sell it a little better. It's been the manuscript that just won't go away and I'm not nearly as excited about it as I used to be because of that. However, having reviews to work from means it's one step closer to getting out the door.

FUM was a quick little survey study that makes a small (but I think important) point. It wouldn't be more than a short report so I don't have to do an in depth literature review, and it's related to both my MA thesis and my dissertation so I've been actively writing in this area lately. But I don't have much of an outline for how I want to present these findings and that is always the most difficult part for me.

Any suggestions on which one I should work on next?

Getting back to writing

Today I went to a local coffee shop and worked on my dissertation manuscript. I found a friend from ANJ who is willing to be my writing partner (WP), we were commiserating about how much writing we had to do and how we missed writing in coffee shops. So I asked if she was willing to get together and do some writing and she jumped at the chance.

Today wasn't that great. She was 1 hour late, which wouldn't have bothered me except I ended up having to pack up and move my car so I wouldn't have to feed the meter every hour. When I thought she'd be there an hour earlier I figured I'd take the good spot so I didn't have to drag my lap top and materials very far and that I'd just move it when she got there and could watch my stuff.

The second part that wasn't so great is that she talked a lot. I am at a point where if I got a solid 4.5 hours of writing (in the 6 hours that we were together) that I could send this draft to my advisor, but she wanted to talk a lot more than I thought she would so I really only got about 1 hour before she got there and 2.5 hours before we left.

I am hopeful that things will be better next time. In the future I'll know not to expect her to get there as early as I do, and she acknowledged that she talked too much this time (I was nice and did not agree or even make any sort of comment about this) and that she'll try to keep the chatter to a minimum next time. I like her a lot so I'm willing to keep trying. Plus, 3.5 hours of writing is 3.5 hours more than I've been doing. :)

My plan is to get the other 1-2 hours of writing in tomorrow and send this draft off to my advisor. I really feel good about this paper thus, I'm excited to get it under review.

Let the productivity begin...

I'm up (it's 7:39am), and I've had my first cup off coffee. I did not sleep in and I'm going to now get to work reading the paper I have to comment on. *

Even cancelled the lunch date with my friend so I'll have all day for this writing extravaganza. May need to move to Starbucks later as it is supposed to get VERY hot. Either way I will check in later tonight and give the update.

* But first a blog update. :)

9:57am- I have read, commented on and made figures for, and sent back secondary GA paper. Now on to dissertation manuscript.

12:37pm- I have read through and did a lot of editing on the dissertation draft. I am going to get some lunch now and then do some additional analysis this afternoon and maybe even send the paper to my grad advisor who is a co-author on this paper this afternoon!!

Un-productivity List

I just edited my "productivity list" on here, which made me realize just how un-productive I've been with writing*. Running participants and training interns has really taken over my life these past few months and therefore I had to change my goals from end of June to end of August.

If I do end up staying here at my post doc and going on the academic job market in the Fall, these papers NEED to be under review. I have a pretty good publication record thus far, but only 1 first authored paper and no pubs with my graduate advisor. For the jobs I would want I need to show some independent work.

So... tomorrow I am staying home to write. I'm dedicating the morning to reading, commenting and editing the paper with my secondary grad advisor as I've had that over a month now. Then I'm having lunch with a friend and the afternoon is dedicated to dissertation manuscript. I am hoping that if I put in some good writing time this week I can actually switch off with my grad advisor. I can give her my diss manuscript when she gives me the 3rd author paper to comment on.

Wish me luck.

* It also made me realize that I need to come up with some good acronyms for my papers but I'm just not feeling all that creative tonight.

I am so excited

that tomorrow is Wednesday!! Yay for 4 day work weeks.

I received comments from my undergrad mentor on Diss MS 1 today. Overall she said she really enjoyed my paper and that it was very well written. As I've mentioned in other posts, I find writing really hard so I was thrilled to read her comments, especially because she is the consummate editor so her standards are really high.

Now, I just hope I have time later this week to get to it. I have a ton of post doc related work that I need to get done this week. I'm running participants again next week so I won't have much time at all to write then.

I haven't had a chance to type up the letter to the editor regarding my reviewing post. But I will post a follow-up when/if I get anything from the editor.

writing, writing, writing

I find writing incredibly hard. In the end my writing is quite good but I have never had a good role model for writing, my grad school advisor finds writing really hard as well so that wasn't helpful.

My advisor also never works on more than one paper at a time so it sucked to be their grad student when they were co-authoring papers with other students.

I'm getting better. When I put my mind to it, I can get into a groove and really make progress. Today I spent over two hours working on the paper with my mentor. I think I might actually be able to turn it over to her after a few hours more tomorrow. I hope she's happy with it (actually, I'm hoping she's more than happy with it!), but I'll settle for feeling as though I did enough to help her move it forward.

Wish me luck.

Oh, and I applied for another job today.

And I received a letter from the last TT job I was waiting to hear from. They canceled their search for this year but they're hoping to get the funding for next year so they said they'd keep my materials and I just have to let them know if I want them reactivated. All in all, I was just really impressed they contacted me.