Guides

Submitting and peer review

Choosing a journal, avoiding desk rejection and working with editors and reviewers.

• Cover letter to the editor: what to state for the desk screen
  What marketing journal editors screen for before review (fit, contribution, generalizability, relevance) and how to state each plainly in your cover letter.
• Desk rejection: why journals reject papers without review, and how to avoid it
  Why marketing and business journals desk reject papers, how often it happens at top journals, and seven checks to run before you submit.
• How to choose a journal for a marketing paper
  Shortlist journals for a marketing paper by fit, contribution type and audience, with editors' figures on desk rejection and what impact factors miss.
• Research gap vs contribution: why a gap is not enough
  A research gap says what has not been studied; a contribution says what the field now understands differently. How editors tell them apart and how to state yours.
• Responding to reviewers: planning a revision and the response letter
  How to handle a revise-and-resubmit: sort reviewer comments, keep your core idea, disagree with reasons and write a response letter the editor can follow.