You know that feeling. You have spent months raising the funds for your research study, writing the protocol and having it approved by your ethics committee. Then you spent a year or more completing the research and writing up your results. Then finally you press “send” and your sacred manuscript is winging its way across cyberspace to the journal of your choice. Your feeling of relief is immense and for a short time you turn your mind to other pursuits.

Then with what appears to be quite rude alacrity, you receive the email from the journal. Your heart sinks as you assimilate the rejection. The editor informs you that your manuscript has been reviewed by two or more of the world’s most eminent authorities on the topic. Unfortunately none sees value in your study which is “too speculative” and does not fit with what “is already known about the topic”. Then to add further insult, the editor states that your study is in any case of too low an impact to be of any interest …