What is Rejecta Historia? Rejecta Historia is an open access online journal that publishes only papers that have been rejected from peer-reviewed journals in the historical sciences.
Is this some kind of joke? No, Rejecta Historia is real.
But weren”t those papers rejected for a reason? Quite probably, yes.
So why publish them? We believe that many previously rejected papers (even those rejected for legitimate reasons) can nonetheless have legitimate value to the academic community. This value may take many forms:
- “mapping the blind alleys of science”: papers containing negative results can warn others against futile directions;
- “reinventing the wheel”: papers accidentally rederiving a known result may contain new insight or ideas;
- “squaring the circle”: papers discovered to contain a serious technical flaw may nevertheless contain information or ideas of interest;
- “applications of cold fusion”: papers based on a controversial premise may contain ideas applicable in more traditional settings;
- “misunderstood genius”: other papers may simply have no natural home among existing journals.
What are the editorial policies? The editors may consult with experts in a specific field on a case-by-case basis to determine the interest of a particular topic to the academic community. Due to the unique format of this journal, the editors reserve the right to accept/reject papers on the basis of several nontraditional and loosely defined criteria. Due to the lack of a formal review process, the authors may not expect to receive any specific feedback or criticism of their paper.
If there is no peer review, then what about quality control? We fully expect that many of these papers will contain flaws and/or technical mistakes (they were rejected, after all). In the open letter, it is expected that the authors will discuss any known flaws in their paper with full and honest disclosure. As an additional means of quality control, correspondences responding to articles published in Rejecta Historia are encouraged from the community at-large and will be considered for subsequent publication.
Will you publish anything? No, we select papers based on several loosely defined criteria. In short, we aim to publish a variety of interesting papers that allow some opportunity for learning.
Why should I read Rejecta Historia? Rejecta Historia is a unique social and academic experiment, and the papers we publish will be interesting for a wide variety of (often nontraditional) reasons.
What does “open access” mean? All papers appearing in Rejecta Historia are made freely and publicly available via this website for users to download, read, distribute and modify (assuming proper attribution). Papers are published in Rejecta Historia under a Creative Commons license that allows the authors to retain ownership of the copyright of their work.
Can I cite a paper in Rejecta Historia? Please do! Our current impact factor is 0. While we do not believe that impact factor is a comprehensive measure of value to the academic community, we would be thrilled to hear about research contributions that come from Rejecta Historia papers.
Publishing with Rejecta Historia
Why should I submit a paper to Rejecta Historia? Publishing in Rejecta Historia gives you a new chance to shed fresh light on your work. If, you feel that despite its flaws your work may be interesting or educational to the community for some nontraditional reason, we give you a forum to advertise your work. Submitting a paper to Rejecta Historia is also very simple (in many cases you need make little or no changes to the original rejected manuscript). In addition, you retain complete copyright control of your work and are free to publish it elsewhere (including your own website). In fact, we would be thrilled to see it graduate to a more traditional journal, and after publishing in Rejecta Historia, you might receive the feedback to help you do just that.
What is the scope of Rejecta Historia? Is my paper appropriate? The scope of Rejecta Historia is very broad, encompassing all disciplines relating to the historical sciences. If you have questions about whether your paper is appropriate, please email the editors. Rejecta Historia places no conditions on the original reasons for a paper”s rejection; all papers that can be legally published will be considered.
How do I submit a paper to Rejecta Historia? Please see guidelines for submission.
Do I need to revise my rejected paper before submitting to Rejecta Historia? At times, the editor reserves the right to request minor changes to improve readability, but this will be upon the author’s discretion.
How can I comment on a paper that has been published in Rejecta Historia? As an additional means of quality control for published papers, follow-up correspondences are encouraged from the community at-large and will be considered for subsequent publication.
Are there any author charges to publish in Rejecta Historia? No. Rejecta Historia is to be as accessible as possible to both authors and readers. All material is accepted, published and distributed without any mandatory fees. That being said, we do expect papers will be of a normal and readable length.
If my paper gets accepted to Rejecta Historia, can I list it on my CV? Sure. However, please keep in mind how an article published in a journal for rejected articles will look upon your CV in loo of other published works in more well-established journals.