publications - What to do if reviewers reject a paper without understanding the content?

One of my friends submitted a paper to a reputable communications journal and received some reviews a week back. The paper was rejected, but the review comments were abysmal:

• The language was so bad in one of them that it was difficult to understand what the reviewer was hinting at. Besides, the comments pertained to trivial things like naming of axes and there was no comment on (or understanding of) the overall work.


• The second of the three reviewers rejected the paper in one line saying it was impossible for him/her to understand what the paper aimed at.


• The third reviewer appreciated the paper and its results and made good suggestions for improving the results.

The editor-in-charge has rejected the paper since the vote was 2/3 in favour of that, but my friend feels hard done as he feels the two reviewers did not merit to review the work.

What recourse does an author have if his paper is rejected by a reputable journal, but the review comments indicate a serious lack of understanding of the paper's work? Should the author write his/her grievance to an editor higher in the hierarchy (an associate editor, for example)? Or is ditching the journal and submitting it to somewhere else the only solution?

Answer

F'x has ably covered one possible reason: that it's not you, it's them.

I'm going to cover the other side of things. That is, starting from the assumption that the editor has made a good decision.

The authors should consider rewriting the abstract and introduction. If two peer reviewers didn't understand the paper, the paper may just need a savage reworking.

The authors may also wish to try working with a freelance development editor.

Finally, the authors might want to bring on board a co-author who's been frequently published: I expect that many decent-sized, decent-quality departments have at least one person whose quality of writing leads to get manuscripts getting accepted first time, pretty much every time.

And then submit to a different journal. I don't know the field, but I'm willing to speculate that there are a few reputable journals where the article could be published.