Even Eloquent Science bloggers get rejected. ;-)

The title of this post relates to my post about our university president having her paper rejected. Recently I was informed that a paper that I was coauthor on that we submitted to Nature Geoscience was rejected. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it), the paper was at least considered for a few weeks rather than being rejected after two days (as has happened to me in the past with Nature).

Here is the abstract from our paper, lead authored by Ann Rowan:

Over a glacial–interglacial cycle, climate-driven erosion and sediment transport processes control deposition, the rate of which scales with drainage area. However, glaciers can flow against the topographic gradient to cross drainage divides, reshaping fluvial drainage networks and dramatically altering discharge. Glacial-drainage capture often occurs due to ice caps straddling range divides, and more subtly where shallow drainage divides cross valley floors. Although this process has previously been inferred in the Southern Alps, we apply the a numerical glacier model to provide the first quantitative demonstration that glacial-drainage capture drives variations in discharge of a similar order of magnitude to those that occur due to climate change alone, that is, the discharge peak resulting from deglaciation. Glacial-drainage capture is distinct from traditional (baselevel-driven) drainage capture and may be unrecognized in the depositional record, as this process operates on similar timescales to climate variations. Careful evaluation of the sedimentary record in basins where glacial-drainage capture occurs is required if these sediments are to be used for reconstruction of past climate change.

The confusing part was the explanation for the rejection.

Thank you for submitting your manuscript entitled “Drainage capture driven by glaciation in the Southern Alps, New Zealand”. Please allow me to apologize for the delay in our response. This delay is all the more regrettable, as we are unable to offer to publish it in Nature Geoscience.

Because we receive many more papers than we can publish, we must decline a substantial proportion of manuscripts without sending them to referees, so that they may be sent elsewhere without delay. Decisions of this kind are made by the editorial staff when it appears that papers, even when technically correct, are unlikely to succeed in the competition for limited space.

Among the considerations that arise at this stage are the likely interest of a manuscript to a broad readership of geoscientists, the pressure on space in the various fields of interest covered by Nature Geoscience and the likelihood that a manuscript would seem of great topical interest to those working in the same or related areas of the Earth sciences.

In the present case, we have no doubt that your description of the effects of glacier drainage capture in the Southern Alps of New Zealand will be of inherent interest to fellow specialists. But I regret that we are unable to conclude that the paper provides the sort of mechanistic insights into glacier dynamics more generally that would be likely to excite the immediate interest of researchers in a broad range of the geosciences. We therefore feel that the present paper would find a more appropriate outlet in another journal, rather than Nature Geoscience.

I am sorry that we cannot respond more positively, and I assure you that our decision does not reflect any doubts about the quality of the work reported. I hope that you will rapidly receive a more favourable response elsewhere.

Yours sincerely

Dr. XXXXXXX
Associate Editor
Nature Geoscience

PS: Although we very much regret that we cannot offer to publish your paper in Nature Geoscience for editorial reasons, it may be appropriate for Nature Communications – a recent addition to NPG’s portfolio. Nature Communications is an online-only journal publishing original research papers in the physical, chemical, biological and earth sciences; further information can be found at www.nature.com/naturecommunications. Should you wish to have your paper considered by the editors of Nature Communications please use the link to the NPG manuscript transfer service in the footnote below. Using this link you will be able to transfer your manuscript automatically to Nature Communications.

Like all our journals, Nature Communications is editorially independent, and the editors will make their own editorial decision whether to send your manuscript for review.

“Mechanistic insights into glacier dynamics”? That’s not what the paper is about. “That would be likely to excite the immediate interest of researchers in a broad range of the geosciences”? Really? Geoscientists are interested in mechanistic insights into glacier dynamics? I doubt it. So frustrating.

Look, I know that getting a paper published in the Nature group of journals is not easy. I would at least hope that if they decide to reject a paper that they understand what the paper is about before they reject it.

Postscript: The paper was eventually accepted and published by Geology.

(Image from http://www.mahatravel.org/category/new-zealand/)