MANUSCRIPT SWAP Vol. 1, No. 1 · Casting call · Preprint, not peer reviewed APPLY
NOW CASTING

Manuscript
Swap.

Get your stuck paper unstuck. Trade it with a stranger from your field for two weeks: week one, their rules; week two, yours.

Submit a paper worth finishing

Season 1 · Ten places · Casting closes 28 September 2026

ABSTRACT

Most academics hold at least one manuscript not opened in six months. The usual explanations (workload, Reviewer 2, the data) are rarely the whole story. We pair two researchers from adjacent fields and require each to live inside the other's abandoned paper for two weeks.

KEYWORDSabandoned manuscripts; reciprocal review; sunk cost; Table 3; Reviewer 2
SAMPLEn = 10, matched in five pairs by hand
RECEIVEDApplications open now; close 28 September 2026

Fig. 1. Reunion, pilot episode. Trailer footage from the pilot swap, shown with participants' consent.

1. Procedure

You hand over the paper you've been avoiding for at least six months. You get one from a stranger a few doors down the discipline: someone who knows your methods but has never heard of your paper. Neither of you has any sunk cost in the other's mess, which is why it works.

Matched by hand with a partner in an adjacent field: close enough to read it, far enough to be rude about it.

  1. 1.1
    Week one, their rules. Your partner's paper arrives with its Manual. The theory section stays. Table 3 is not questioned. You read, take notes, obey. You are a guest.
  2. 1.2
    Week two, your rules. The Manual goes in the drawer. Restructure, cut, rename the hypothesis, or recommend a mercy killing.
  3. 1.3
    The diaries. Short video entries as you go. Day 4 is usually when it gets honest.
  4. 1.4
    The reunion. Both pairs on one call. Three things you changed, one thing you refused to touch. Authors may respond. Someone always cries about a footnote.

2. Results, preliminary

FROM THE VIDEO DIARIES · PILOT

Fig. 2. Selected diary entries, days 2 to 9, and one reunion excerpt. Recordings stay within the cohort; stills shown with consent.

MANUSCRIPT MANUAL

3. The Manuscript Manual

Before you leave, you write a manual for the person moving in. Not a form. A first-person description of the paper as if it were a household: who lives in it, what the routine is, what must not be touched.

Our paper consists of five sections and two co-authors. The second author has the data and has not replied since March. Table 3 is load-bearing. Reviewer 2 was wrong and we do not discuss Reviewer 2.

Your partner reads it on the sofa, week one. In week two they may ignore every line.

4. Apply for Season 1

Doctoral students, postdocs, and faculty in any discipline. One manuscript each, untouched for six months or more.

Send to casting@manuscriptswap.com, subject line Season 1:

  • Name, field, career stage
  • ORCID or Google Scholar profile
  • Working title and the month you last opened the file
  • One paragraph on what it argues and where it stopped
Send your worst draft

Table 1. Timeline, Season 1.

Applications close28 September 2026
Casting results2 October 2026
Matches5 October 2026
Week one, their rules12 to 18 October
Week two, your rules19 to 25 October
Online reunion (1 hr)26 October

Free, with one condition: deliver nothing to your partner by the reunion and you owe a €100 penalty. Manuscripts are timestamped as preprints before the exchange and shared only with your partner.1