13d • Publishing
Remember about clarity when writing novelty statements!
You’re not getting rejected because your results and methods are not interesting. You’re getting rejected because your novelty is unclear
(Let’s fix that!)
Novelty is not:
- “No one has done exactly this before.”
- “We used a slightly different parameter.”
- “We added more data to an old idea.”
Novelty is ONE clear, new thing in your work.
- New problem.
- New solution.
- New combination.
- New insight.
If you can’t say it in one sentence, you don’t have it yet.
From my experience, there are 3 types of novelty that get you published
1. New solution → Old problem
“We apply X (new method/technology) to improve Y (known problem).”
2. Old solution → New problem
“We take X (known method/technology) into Y (new context/field).”
3. New insight → Known area
“We show something counterintuitive / previously unquantified about X.”
If your paper is:
Old solution → Old problem → “with more data”
That’s not novelty. That’s a lab report.
Make sure that you clearly articulate the novelty of your work in abstract & introduction.
So:
- Don’t hide your novelty in the discussion.
- Don’t wrap it in 3 paragraphs of “In recent years…”
- Don’t make them dig for it.
Put it front and centre, particularly in:
- Last paragraph of your intro
- Core state,emt of your abstract
- First/second paragraph of your cover letter
Your paper doesn’t need 20 “contributions”.
It needs ONE unforgettable novelty statement.
Write that first.
Then write your paper around it.
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Remember about clarity when writing novelty statements!
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