Q: Should I still submit to the journal after being turned down in the presubmission inquiry?

Sorry to know that this journal turned down your manuscript at the presubmission inquiry stage itself. But in a way, that’s a good thing. You save time compared with submitting on the platform and then meeting with a desk rejection there. With the time you have saved, you can make presubmission inquiries with other journals, and hopefully, eventually submit to one that is interested in your manuscript.

So, to answer your question, no, you should simply save the effort and move on. Also note that if you decide to submit and they eventually reject, your manuscript will be ‘stuck’ with them for some period of time, say, at least two weeks, during which time, you can’t submit anywhere else. So, the practical thing to do is to try with some other journal(s). In fact, you did a wise thing by making a presubmission inquiry first, and you should continue this strategy with other journals. :-)

To improve your chances of acceptance with another journal, you may find these resources helpful.

• Most common reasons for journal rejection
• Tips to avoid journal rejection
• How to choose journals for submitting your paper

Additionally, you may also wish to check out our new AI-powered platform for manuscript submission, R Pubsure. The platform provides two benefits with the aim to minimize desk rejection. One, its machine checks allow you to improve your manuscript to make it submission-ready. Two, once your manuscript is ready to submit, it allows you to showcase it to several editors on the platform, one of whom may consider it for publishing with their journal. However, the platform is presently only for English manuscripts. So, if yours is in Chinese, it may not be relevant right now. Still, you may learn about it for future reference. You can find out more here: R Pubsure

All the best for the next inquiries and submissions!