iScience

July 28, 2021: After being rejected by Joule, the manuscript was submitted to iScience (no OA fee required upon acceptance).
August 16, 2021: Received major revision in the first round of review, with over 20 comments from four reviewers, which I find very constructive and professional.
September 27, 2021: Received the notice of pre-acceptance, requiring revision according to the formatting guidelines of Cell Press. It is indeed true that the requirements of a prestigious journal are different, and I deeply appreciate this.
October 8, 2021: Officially accepted.
October 12, 2021: Online.

After experiencing direct rejections from Joule and EES, I once considered submitting to other top-tier journals in the Chinese Academy of Sciences category. However, after careful analysis of iScience's relevant information (firstly, it is a sister journal of Joule, and secondly, it is benchmarked against NC), despite the mixed evaluations online, I believe that Cell Press will definitely arrange the development of the journal well, and I have always had faith in the quality of iScience. In the end, we transferred our article to iScience, which required a great deal of effort. I believe that this is giving back to the initial passion and hope of researchers!

We have high hopes for iScience and hope that it will excel, strictly control the quality of manuscripts, and strive for higher rankings among comprehensive journals. At the same time, I also encourage everyone to try iScience more. Let us strive together!

Brother or sister: Cheer up, luck plays a significant role in publishing papers, it doesn't mean that you will be accepted just because your paper is of high quality. iScience is a legitimate research journal under Cell Press, although it may be easier than Nat Cell Biol, it is not that different. Therefore, in terms of individual cases, it is entirely possible that your paper was overlooked. From a statistical point of view, if many papers rejected by iScience are ultimately accepted by Nat Cell Biol, it would be a strange phenomenon. So, your individual case cannot explain the problem.

Our boss has published many papers in iCNS sub-journals. Through comparison, our research group found that iScience actually has high requirements, although it may be slightly easier. Everyone should maintain the right mindset and be mentally prepared when submitting manuscripts.

In the past, many people who were rejected by iScience resorted to various criticisms on the internet, but they were later exposed by the forces of justice. Later, these scoundrels learned their lesson and started using more secretive ways to criticize iScience. For example, that young person hqh113, after criticizing, would add a sentence like "perhaps could become a leading figure in the interdisciplinary field" to cover up. The intentions of such people are well known by everyone.