Call it a scholarly “Island of Misfit Toys”: Rejecta Mathematica is an open-access online journal that publishes mathematical papers that have been rejected by others. Rejecta’s motto is caveat emptor, which is to say that the journal has no technical peer-review process.
As The Economist notes in its article on the journal, there are plenty of examples of scholars who have suffered rejection, only to go on to become giants in their field. (OK, two.) Nonetheless, if you have lots of free time on your hands, by all means, check out the inaugural issue.
And if deciphering mathematical formulae isn’t your thing, stand by: Rejecta says it may open the floodgates to other disciplines. Prospective franchisees are invited to contact the journal.
Next up: Rejecta Rejecta, a journal for articles too flawed for Rejects Mathematica, printed on single-ply toilet paper.
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3 Responses to Hear the One About the Rejected Mathematician?
jdelap - August 13, 2009 at 11:27 am
It will be interesting to see the rejected papers on surgical techniques, once the journal is open to papers from the medical field!
blesstayo - August 13, 2009 at 12:27 pm
What an interesting journal? The articles present some insightful mathematical ideas. I hope Rejecta Mathematica will live up to the quality in this inaugural issue. Can the authors now add these articles on their resumes? Of course the authors from Stanford Univesity and Rutgers don’t need additional recognition. Cheer up folks, I have dozens of rejected papers in the last 25 years!!! I can hardly wait to see the inaugral issues of (1) Rejecta Medicinea, (2) Rejecta Physica, (3) Rejecta Chemistrya, (4) Rejecta Economica, etc. Three happy cheers to mathematicians who always take the lead in creating new ideas. All engineers and physicists cannot survive without accepted and rejecta mathematicians.
dineh - August 17, 2009 at 7:37 pm
A Refereed Journal (arefereedjournal.com) began offering a similar venue since the 1980s for those in Computer Information Systems and beyond… Perhaps more of a Rejecta Rejecta, it is “published as needed”and though dormant for a few years is preparing to fire up again – just as soon as the need blossoms…