8 Reasons I Accepted Your Article

What do reviewers like to see in an article? Five of them from Elsevier answered that question with some of the following points:

1. It provides insight into an important issue – for example, by explaining a wide variance when numbers are spread out from the mean or expected value, or by shedding light on an unsolved problem that affects a lot of people.

2. The insight is useful to people who make decisions, particularly long-term organizational decisions or, in our particular field, family decisions.

3. The insight is used to develop a framework or theory, either a new theory or advancing an existing one.

Novelty is also a huge draw for reviewers, and if a reviewer wishes he or she had written that paper, you get bonus points. One of the perhaps less obvious reasons these reviewers accept an article is because it “tells a good story.” That doesn’t mean you send them fiction, but that you don’t contradict yourself and you eschew obfuscation (heh).

Read all eight reasons and more commentary from Elsevier editors here.