Hi,

I had a bad time today accompanied by some confusions. Reaching out to you (but not necessarily looking for a reply) because I think you may understand me better than other people. Basically, my paper submitted to [conference] is again rejected, although I reframed it from my last submission. This is its third time being rejected. The reviewers said the motivation in Introduction was confusing (I take it), and the Discussion was lack of depth (I also take this). They also complained about the Findings being unsurprising and shallow, which I’m not sure I agree with, perhaps they are not looking at the findings from the same perspective of mine. There was a particularly harsh review, and here’s some text it said:

[Review text omitted.]

Well, now copying and pasting this block of text here again hurts me quite a lot.

Maybe the reviewers are right, but I’m kind of tired of reading reviews like this, or have been working hard yet not being valued. Maybe I did miss a good chunk of literature that should be cited, or maybe I didn’t think deep enough to contribute to the community (well, I have never understood why it is so important to come up with design implications that nobody in the world will ever implement, so I lack the motivation to think about them.) I realize I start rambling now, sorry. I guess I want to say I’m not sure if I’m a good candidate as an academic/researcher, and if not, maybe I should go do something else. What counts as a good piece of research? I thought as long as it’s generating new perspectives and new knowledge, it should be enough. Maybe I’m wrong.

Again, I’m not seeking any response from you, but knowing that you’ve read this email makes me feel better. I have talked with other people about these confusions but few of them have the patience to listen to it or they simply don’t think about it. I’m also tired of myself. I don’t think I think shallowly, but whenever comes to writing paper, it seems like my words are shallow. Don’t know what to blame, perhaps language?

Hope all is well with you and your dog. And thank you for reading.

Best,

[Name]