Hey academics-coming-up! Congratulations on sending out that article! However, that probably also means, a few months later, you got your article rejected. Not even a Revise and Resubmit. Worry not. It happens to all of us, most of the time. Here's a thread on what I do.

1. Don't read it all right away. You really don't have to. Save the e-mail and look at it again later. A day, a week, a month. The nice thing about a rejection is there's no timeline for the revise and resubmit so it's more your career schedule considerations that matter here.

2. When you do look at it, cut and paste the whole thing into a word document. Then organize the comments into sections with bolded subtitles in your own words. I do this for revise&resubmit as well, and I know some friends like to do this in excel.

3. However whereas for an R&R you have to deal with *all* the comments, here you just have to deal with the comments you think are good! Especially if the comments are helpful, it's all the advantages of close reads in an R&R without the shoehorning every comment into a revision.

4. But don't cut those comments that don't work right away. Are these reviewers actually wrong or would you just like them to be wrong? Why not make these changes? And even if you don't make the changes, how can you rewrite the paper so those comments don't happen again?

5. What are the signposts you need, the nods at other literature, the acknowledgments other papers are great for X but you are doing Y? You don't want to do too much of this or your paper will look like a car with no paint and all bumper stickers, but a little goes a long way.

6. So you cut some of the comments and then you still have the good ones. This part can be really stressful, but try not to take it personally! I think of it as an exciting engineering problem. How do I get this paper from here (its current imperfect form) to there (published!)?

7. To the extent possible, this of the work of this rewrite as the real joy of what you do: you're a creative intellectual, and the creativity is the key. Like any cook mid-preparation, you can sometimes run into a problem and you have limited tools to fix it. What do you do?

8. Okay so you take the comments you like and you organize them by theme. And then you figure out what to change and how. And critically: when. Try not to let these things fester. Once I get started, I try to be done within a month (even if I've waited six months to get started).

9. This part is big, as, echoing @JessicaCalarco, at least 1 of the reviewers in the new submission (or submissions! sorry!) will have previously reviewed the piece, and will want to see changes. Not everything of course. It's not an R&R but a good faith effort goes a long way.

10. Some of the comments will contradict each other even if they're both good. That can be a big problem for revisions, especially in how you write your response letter. Luckily, here you get to just pick which you like better! And then maybe nod at the way you didn't go.

11. Some of the comments, also very good, might also push you to make the paper very very different. Sometimes that might be necessary as the current form just does't work. Sometimes it might not be. There's no easy answer here, but *talk to people about it*. None of us is alone.

12. Finally, be kind to yourself. Reading reviews of how your work doesn't work, even if they're written thoughtfully but especially if they're cutting or mean: that's hard. It's especially hard when they're right! But remember a few things:

12.1: First, this paper is not an referendum on your entire intellectual potential or capacity. It's just not. We all write papers that don't work. That's the game. Second, regardless, you're more than your brain and that's not what I think matters most in life anyway. And third:

12.2: Try to make it fun. Most of us do this work at least partially because we like to think, we like to work out ideas, we like the thrill of solving creative and intellectual problems. This rejection is just another interesting puzzle. And you can solve it! Fin.

And lucky 13: as always, please forgive the typos!