Carefully Review the Comments

Manuscripts may be rejected either before or after peer review. If a paper is rejected prior to peer review, the editor will generally provide at least a sentence or two in the decision letter explaining why the paper wasn’t sent for review.  If a paper is rejected after peer review, your decision letter will be accompanied by the critiques of the experts who reviewed your paper.

It may be easy to get distracted or disheartened by the rejection of the work, but be sure to take the time to carefully read the comments you received to better understand the reasons for rejection. This is especially important if you are considering submitting the same manuscript to another journal. 

After your first read through of the comments, it can be a good idea to put them away for a while then re-read them.  Coming back to the comments after perhaps a day or two may help you process them in a more objective light.