Your suggestion “rejected” in a shared online document?

Online document-sharing service has revolutionized the way scientists share documents and interact with collaborators. Google Docs is probably the most widely used online document-sharing service. I use it almost every day for work and to share scientific paper drafts with coauthors. It is very convenient and facilitates collaboration between co-authors. For instance, a co-author can make a comment on a sentence with a new suggestion or just his/her opinion. The lead author (i.e., the document owner) or other co-authors can add their opinion to that comment. In the end, the lead author (or the document owner) has to decide to either “accept” the suggestion or “reject” it. This is where things get tricky and sometimes very personal. The person who made that suggestion in the first place will receive an email notification that their suggestion is either “accepted” or “rejected”. If and when you receive an email notification that your suggestion is “rejected”, it is not the best feeling in the world. You feel rejected (literally) and that your opinion does not matter. Let’s be frank. Nobody wants to have his/her suggestions rejected, even for senior scientists who have experienced many types of rejections (from journals, and colleagues) throughout their long careers. You get disappointed, sometimes angry, and may start to think that the lead author is an idiot, not necessarily in that order.

I have some suggestions for everyone. First of all, for people like me who act first before thinking, please don’t reply to that “rejection” email, at least not immediately. If you do that, you may ruin your relationship with that person who rejected your suggestion. Yes, that can happen. If you need to reject a suggestion from your co-author, leave a note to notify why you are rejecting it in a polite way before you reject the suggestion. That makes a huge difference whether you believe it or not. Finally, for Google, can you come up with a different (and more inclusive) word than “rejected”, please?