# Frustrations with a JOSS rejection

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frustrations-with-a-joss-rejection/139086>\
**Category:** Offtopic\
**Created:** [August 27, 2026, 10:29pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frustrations-with-a-joss-rejection/139086 "2026-08-27T22:29:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![raman\_kumar](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/raman_kumar/32/26782_2.png) [@raman\_kumar](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/raman_kumar)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2026, 10:29pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frustrations-with-a-joss-rejection/139086/1 "2026-08-27T22:29:51Z")

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I have also submitted my [Julia code](https://github.com/raman-maker/Athena-HDF-file-3D-plotting-in-Julia) work for [Athena++](https://www.athena-astro.app/) simulation data plotting in JOSS. But reviewer rejected it saying that script is too small. It took me 6 months to develop this algorithm but still they rejected. I got this algorithm after many failed routes. See how difficult it was:

- [3D volume plot for spherical coordinate grid points](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/3d-volume-plot-for-spherical-coordinate-grid-points/129668)
- [Improve performance of this index creation and accessing code](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/improve-performance-of-this-index-creation-and-accessing-code/134235)

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**Author:** ![jbytecode](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jbytecode/32/17719_2.png) [@jbytecode](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jbytecode)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 8:06am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frustrations-with-a-joss-rejection/139086/2 "2026-08-28T08:06:11Z")

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@raman_kumar - Hi, sorry for the rejection. However, it seems the rejection was not only due to the size, but rather the lack of an installable, testable, and documented Julia package. Here is the rationale behind the rejection:

> <https://github.com/openjournals/joss-reviews/issues/10688#issuecomment-4663650109>
>
> \*\*Submitting author:\*\* @raman-maker (\<a href="http://orcid.org/0009-0000-2122-92…40"\>Raman Kumar\</a\>)
> \*\*Repository:\*\* https://github.com/raman-maker/Athena-HDF-file-3D-plotting-in-Julia
> \*\*Branch with paper.md\*\* (empty if default branch): main
> \*\*Version:\*\* v1.0.0
> \*\*Editor:\*\* Pending
> \*\*Reviewers:\*\* Pending
> \*\*Managing EiC:\*\* Warrick Ball
> 
> \## Status
> 
> \[!\[status\](https://joss.theoj.org/papers/21671f315217567626d02a5cc96562d2/status.svg)\](https://joss.theoj.org/papers/21671f315217567626d02a5cc96562d2)
> 
> Status badge code:
> 
> \`\`\`
> HTML: \<a href="https://joss.theoj.org/papers/21671f315217567626d02a5cc96562d2"\>\<img src="https://joss.theoj.org/papers/21671f315217567626d02a5cc96562d2/status.svg"\>\</a\>
> Markdown: \[!\[status\](https://joss.theoj.org/papers/21671f315217567626d02a5cc96562d2/status.svg)\](https://joss.theoj.org/papers/21671f315217567626d02a5cc96562d2)
> \`\`\`
> 
> \*\*Author instructions\*\*
> 
> Thanks for submitting your paper to JOSS @raman-maker. \*\*Currently, there isn't a JOSS editor assigned\*\* to your paper.
> 
> @raman-maker if you have any suggestions for potential reviewers then please mention them here in this thread (without tagging them with an @). You can search \[the list of people\](https://reviewers.joss.theoj.org/lookup) that have already agreed to review and may be suitable for this submission.
> 
> \*\*Editor instructions\*\*
> 
> The JOSS submission bot @editorialbot is here to help you find and assign reviewers and start the main review. To find out what @editorialbot can do for you type:
> 
> \`\`\`
> @editorialbot commands
> \`\`\`

I think the decision is correct.

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**Author:** ![raman\_kumar](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/raman_kumar/32/26782_2.png) [@raman\_kumar](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/raman_kumar)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 9:57am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frustrations-with-a-joss-rejection/139086/3 "2026-08-28T09:57:09Z")

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What should I do so that it can be accepted in JOSS? How to make it installable, testable? Should I make a documentation other than the .md file? I can’t increase the size of script too much.

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**Author:** ![Benny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/49beb7/32.png) [@Benny](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Benny)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 10:38am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frustrations-with-a-joss-rejection/139086/4 "2026-08-28T10:38:44Z")

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Just to preface, this has become a different enough issue from jbytecode’s to justify being split to its own topic. I’m not qualified to help with the original request, but I hope someone soon will.

If you can’t make it bigger ie implement more novel features, then it’s fundamentally not a good fit for JOSS. But you could restructure your script into a small package if you want (see the [Pkg.jl docs](https://pkgdocs.julialang.org/v1/)), and it’d help other people install and use your code more easily. For example, your lone script does not specify what versions of its dependencies are known or likely to work, so not only do we have to separately install them one by one, there’s a risk your script fails in the future because those dependencies underwent major revisions.

This isn’t a packaging issue, but it would also help other people if you refactored the script into a module with an API, even if it only ends up with 1 function. There are currently many global variable assignments we’d have to manually edit in order to use the script for ourselves, and in total isolation from our own code in case of variable conflicts; it be easier if we could just import a module and provide our own inputs to its functions. One of those global variables was also assigned a file path on your personal machine, exposing some directory structure and narrowing down your OS. For your security, I would strongly discourage sending anything like that over the internet, especially publicly. Other users can provide our own file paths, and Julia has OS-agnostic path operations if you need it.

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**Author:** ![greatpet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@greatpet](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/greatpet)\
**Post date:** [August 28, 2026, 11:05pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frustrations-with-a-joss-rejection/139086/5 "2026-08-28T23:05:37Z")

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A good first step would be `]generate PackageName` in the REPL. This generates the boilerplate directory layout including `src/PackageName.jl` containing a Julia module, `Project.toml` containing dependencies, and `test/runtests.jl`. Then you can follow Pkg docs to activate the environment and use `]add` to add dependencies to `Project.toml`. It takes half an hour to understand the basics, and that would be a nice finishing touch after months of hard work on the actual code.

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**Author:** ![davide.crucitti](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/davide.crucitti/32/218224_2.png) [@davide.crucitti](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/davide.crucitti)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2026, 1:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/frustrations-with-a-joss-rejection/139086/6 "2026-08-31T13:43:20Z")

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To get started with a good project structure I can just recommend BestieTemplate.jl it does make it very simple to get up and running with a good project structure without having to tinker about every little thing you may need to setup.