Christopher Moore is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Coastal Carolina University. He lives in Myrtle Beach, SC with his wife and two children.A couple of weeks ago I was a bit down because I had two papers rejected and a grant proposal go un-funded. This week, I’m back on top (at least emotionally.)
For one of the papers, the referee recommended publication in a different journal. So I sent it off, thinking that I would have to start from scratch with a new referee and a new editor. One week later (which is, like, 3 seconds in academic time) I get the congratulatory email informing me that my paper has been accepted for publication. The manuscript got shipped off to the exact same referee.
Today, I got the external reviews back for the grant proposal that wasn’t funded. I thought this thing sucked. The reviews point to a project that would have probably been funded with just a few more details here and there. One “Excellent” and three “Very Good” reviews. Even better, the reviewers where mostly worried about a couple of feasibility issues that will be oh-so easy to address the next go-round. I looked back at the proposal, and I am amazed that I never mentioned that I had previous experience growing the specific types of samples I will be studying! Almost all of the negative comments pointed to concerns about the PI (me) being able to grow samples.
Oh well. We learn.
I now have one more pub to hang on the wall (with an undergraduate co-author, which goes a loooong way around here). Furthermore, I have hope that funding will come through when I resubmit a better version of my proposal in the fall.