I just stumbled upon this:
Notice the “Published in” field: Lisa Selkirk and Angelika Kratzer have made it publicly known that this paper received a rejection in its very first round of review from Language. I don’t think it can be overstated how important it is for senior people to share cases like this with the junior members of the field; to show everyone that everyone faces difficulty and obstacles and journal rejections.
There is a history-is-written-by-the-victors trap when it comes to mentorship in science. It’s just a fact that most of the people in mentor positions have done at least reasonably well; but if we tell an even-more-rosy version of our story, we increase the chances of imposter syndrome (and various other feelings of inadequacy) among our advisees. Conversely, acts like the one above – sharing that, yes, even pillars in the field get first-round rejections – can go a long way in contextualizing the various failures we all face in our professional journeys. We owe Lisa and Angelika our gratitude for sharing this.
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