Peer-reviewed journals also give the author the opportunity to respond to the
reviewer’s comments.
This ‘response to reviewers’ document is submitted alongside your manuscript,
summarizing the changes that you made in response to the critiques.
Begin the response letter with a broad-level summary of the changes, pointing
out new broad-level content added in response to the most essential criticisms
of the reviewers.
Thereafter, the response letter should contain the complete set of reviewer
comments with your responses interleaved.
Even if you are convinced that the reviewer lacks intellectual capacity, it is
certainly not in your interest to convey this impression to the reviewer.
Keep in mind that if the reviewer failed to understand something, the fault
likely lies, at least in part, with you for not making the point clear enough.
Your goal is to make the work clear and accessible to all readers, not just to
experts.
If the reviewer failed to understand something, apologize for not making it clear.
Even if you are convinced that the text is already clear (i.e., the reviewer
simply missed it), consider revising the text and quoting the revised text in
your response.
In general, even if the requested change seems unnecessary, it is usually better
to go ahead and revise with the goal of showing the reviewer that they were
listened to and understood.
When you make changes to the text or to figures, quote the changes directly in
the response. If possible, refer to the specific pages/sections/paragraphs were
the change was made.
Even if you do not agree with a comment from a reviewer, you cannot ignore it
and must respond to it.
If you disagree, provide evidence supporting your claim.
Use changes of typeface, color, and indenting to discriminate between 3
different elements: the review itself, your responses to the review, and changes
that you have made to the manuscript.
You can explain these typographical conventions in the introduction to your
response.
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