Although there is little hard data, it is said that up to 50% of articles that are published were originally submitted to another journal. Journals simply can’t print everything, and will choose the articles and topics that they think most fit what their readers are currently interested in, even though others submitted may have good research and writing. Sometimes, rejection is a matter of fit—for example, a journal might say that the article is definitely one that should be published, but it should be in a more specialized journal.

In any case, if the article is not accepted for peer review, or not accepted after peer review, the most important thing is for the author(s) to analyze why it was and correct anything that should be corrected in the content and presentation, if it is needed. Then, the article should be submitted to another journal, after checking the instructions and changing the style and formatting accordingly if requirements are different. If the problem is something about the research itself (the need to repeat parts of experiments, or to bring in important research that has now been published), or about additional analysis that is needed (for example, statistical methods), that should be pursued.