C’est pas facile!

‘C’est pas facile’ is one of the very first expressions I learnt in French, and it means ‘it’s not easy’. It is similar to the Nigeria expression ‘no be beans’. I am sure the expression must have been made by countless people at different times who have been dealt the short end of the stick, like I was, sometimes ago.

In 2018, I decided to conduct a meta-analysis on a subject I was passionate about. For the avoidance of doubt, a meta-analysis is an examination of data from a number of independent studies of the same subject, in order to determine overall trends. Who send me message, right! Anyway, I got some senior colleagues to help guide me and we started the journey. I had to sieve through over 5,000 published articles and then zero in on the 14 that met my requirements. After months of writing, back and forth with senior colleagues, the article was ready, and it was time to send to a journal for publication.

The first journal rejected it after taking five months to arrive at a decision. The worrying part of a meta-analysis is that it gets out of date within a short while, so I had to hurry. I addressed their concerns and sent it to another journal, this time the decision was fast, just two weeks, they rejected it, yet again. The good thing was that I got feedback as to why they rejected it, so I repackaged the article and sent it off to another journal.

By this time, it was August, 2020, the third journal asked me for additional information, which I sent to them in a few weeks, then I didn’t hear from them again. I wrote and wrote but they kept asking for more time, until, they gave me a response 14 months later. One of their comments was that the search was outdated. To borrow from the words of the old sage, “that which I feared the most came upon me”.

So, I started almost all over again, this time, I had to sieve through over 10,000 articles, only to identify 48 that met my requirements, because new findings had been published since my first search. The new results changed almost everything about the initial writing, and I had to almost re-write the article again. I remember sharing a post on my WhatsApp status then saying “starting all over and starting for the first time may look alike but they are miles apart. So, if there is a need to start all over, there may be a lot of work to be done but you have the benefit of experience and exposure. These are assets, intangible but they still are assets”. I was speaking to myself, but in any case, it proved to be true.

I created time, out of very tight schedule and concluded the article, I sent it on the 5th of March 2022 and just last night, I was notified that the article had been accepted for publication. Long and hard work but at the end, I am glad I stuck with it.

So, if you are where I was in November, 2021, having to start all over, I know c’est pas facile, mais ca va aller (its not easy but its going to be fine), plus you are not alone. I wish you the very best, don’t give up! Finally, if you meet any researcher, please give them a hug for me, they are going through a lot, C’est pas facile, ehn!