How to get your paper rejected quickly

I sent this rejection letter this morning about a paper submitted to the International Journal of Forecasting.

Dear XXXXX.

I am writing to you regarding manuscript ????? entitled “xxxxxxxxxxxx” which you submitted to the International Journal of Forecasting.

It so happens that I am aware that this paper was previously reviewed for the YYYYYYY journal. It seems that you have not bothered to make any of the changes recommended by the reviewers of your submission to YYYYYYY. Just submitting the same paper to another journal is extremely poor practice, and I am disappointed that you have taken this path. Reviewers spend a great deal of time providing comments, and it is disrespectful to ignore them. I don’t expect you to do everything they say, but I would expect some of their comments to be helpful.

I am unwilling to consider the paper further for the International Journal of Forecasting. Read the previous reviews to know why. And before you submit the paper to a new journal, take the time to consider the reviews you have already been given.

Sincerely,

Rob Hyndman (Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Forecasting)

I have written on this issue before. The peer-review system requires people to donate considerable amounts of time to writing reviews. In general, they do a great job and provide helpful comments. So it really annoys me when authors treat the system as a game with the aim to get a paper accepted with minimal work, and with no interest in learning from feedback.