9 failures

Matthew Bowker

Senior Lecturer in Medical Education · University of Sunderland

Matthew Bowker

Senior Lecturer in Medical Education

University of Sunderland


9 failures

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Collected Failures

Mar 2026

Desk rejection from Postgraduate Medical Journal

Journal Rejection › Desk rejection

Desk rejection without any feedback. Rejection without feedback is the worst kind of rejection!

Jan 2026

Review (started nearly a year ago) rejected

Journal Rejection › Desk rejection

This one really stung as I (respectfully) disagree with the grounds of the rejection.
Onwards.

Jan 2026

Lovely rejection from Medical Teacher

Journal Rejection › After peer review

We submitted a 'Twelve Tips' article on supporting Muslim med students during Ramadan. The reject was personalised, complementary and gave the very reasonable feedback that the points made were valid, but perhaps too anecdotal for the format. Will resubmit as a Letter to the Editor.

Jan 2026

Desk rejection

Journal Rejection › Desk rejection

Desk rejection for the same IPA paper I've been working on for a year.

Dec 2025

Medical Education rejection

Journal Rejection › After peer review

Useful peer review feedback from Medical Education. Will need a significant edit.

Oct 2025

Simulation in Healthcare - rejection

Journal Rejection › After peer review

Useful review feedback from the Socratic Method paper. Will need a bit of a redo.

Jul 2025

Rejection from Teaching and Learning in Medicine

Journal Rejection › After peer review

1000 words of genuinely useful feedback... even if it was devastating. A paper on the Socratic method.

Mar 2025

Medical Education Online - Rejection after revision

Journal Rejection › Revise and resubmit (ultimately rejected)

Peer reviewed, revisions requested. I made the revisions, and then it got rejected. I'm still unsure why.

Mar 2024

IJOHS - Desk rejected because clumsy wording meant I advocated killing role-players

Journal Rejection › Desk rejection

I accidentally spoke about killing "simulated patients" (i.e. role players) rather than "patient simulators" (i.e. manikins). A very reasonable desk rejection.