Receiving a revise-and-resubmit decision is, counterintuitively, good news. It means the journal considers your work worth publishing — if you address the concerns raised. Yet many authors undermine their chances at this stage by writing unfocused responses, overlooking reviewer points, or escalating disagreements in ways that damage the editorial relationship. A professional, structured response to reviewers is not a formality. It is evaluated just as critically as your revised manuscript.
Why Your Response Is as Important as Your Revision
When a reviewer receives your revised manuscript, they read your response letter first. Before they look at a single changed line in the manuscript, they assess whether you understood their concerns, whether you engaged with them seriously, and whether your tone is collaborative. Editors rely on this document to make their final decision.
A thorough, respectful response letter can turn a sceptical reviewer into an advocate. A dismissive or incomplete one can reverse a positive impression built over months of work. Studies of editorial decision-making consistently show that the quality of the response document is one of the strongest predictors of acceptance after revision.
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Understanding the Editorial Decision
Before drafting your response, make sure you understand exactly what the journal has asked you to do. Editorial decisions after peer review fall into three main categories, and each requires a different approach.
Minor revision
A minor revision request indicates that reviewers and the editor are broadly satisfied. The changes requested are typically small: correcting factual errors, clarifying ambiguous sentences, formatting adjustments, or adding a missing reference. Minor revisions usually do not require re-review — the editor checks the revised version themselves. Respond promptly: a turnaround of two to four weeks is expected, and slow responses to minor revisions create an unfavourable impression.
Major revision
A major revision asks for substantial changes: additional analysis, new experiments, restructured sections, or a reframing of claims. The revised manuscript will be sent back to the original reviewers. This is the most common decision for papers with genuine scientific merit that need more work. Turnaround windows are typically 60–120 days, though you should always check the letter for a specific deadline. If you need more time, contact the editor before the deadline — extensions are commonly granted.
Reject and resubmit
A reject-and-resubmit (R&R) means the journal is open to receiving a substantially reworked version, but the revision required is so extensive that it is treated as a new submission entering a fresh review cycle. This decision is common at high-impact journals. Treat it with the same discipline as a major revision: the reviewer comments still provide a detailed roadmap for a stronger manuscript, and a well-executed resubmission is far more likely to succeed than a first submission to a different journal.
Reading Reviewer Comments Strategically
When the decision email arrives, read the letter and reviewer reports once for an overview. Then step away for at least 24 hours. This is not optional. Responding to criticism while your immediate emotional reaction is still active almost always produces a less effective response — one that is defensive, combative, or misses the underlying concern.
When you return to the comments, work through each reviewer report systematically:
- Number every comment: Create a numbered list of every distinct point from each reviewer. If Reviewer 1 raises 12 points, number them R1.1 through R1.12. If the editor has raised additional points, number those separately (Ed.1, Ed.2).
- Group by theme: Some reviewers make the same underlying point multiple times, or two reviewers share a concern. Identifying overlapping comments lets you address them together efficiently.
- Classify each comment: Sort into three categories — easy fixes (minor edits, clarifications), substantive changes (additional analysis or rewriting), and genuine disagreements (where you believe the comment is scientifically incorrect or outside the scope).
- Check the editor's summary: Editors often indicate which points they consider most important, either in the decision letter or in their own comments. Prioritise those in your revision.
Create a table with columns for: Comment ID, Reviewer, Original text, Planned response, Manuscript location of change, Status (done / in progress / disagreement). This prevents comments from being missed and gives you a clear progress tracker across weeks of revision work.
Structuring Your Response Document
Your response to reviewers is a formal document with a defined structure, submitted alongside the revised manuscript as a separate file. It typically has two parts: a brief cover letter and the point-by-point responses.
The cover letter
Open with a short cover letter — three to five paragraphs at most — addressed to the Editor-in-Chief or handling editor. It should:
- Thank the editor and reviewers for their time and constructive feedback
- State that you are submitting a revised version of the manuscript (include the manuscript title and reference number)
- Provide a brief, specific summary of the major changes made (two to four bullet points)
- Note any specific points you were unable or unwilling to address, and briefly explain why
Editors read hundreds of cover letters. 'We have addressed all reviewer comments' tells them nothing. Instead, write: 'We have added a new supplementary analysis (Fig. S3) addressing Reviewer 2's concern about confounders, and restructured the Discussion to separate our limitations more clearly.' Specific summaries set a positive tone before the editor reads a word of your manuscript.
Point-by-point responses
After the cover letter, list every reviewer comment in order, followed immediately by your response. The standard format is:
- Reviewer 1, Comment 1: [Quote the original comment verbatim — never paraphrase]
- Response: [Your explanation, justification, or description of changes made]
- Manuscript change: [Quote the revised text exactly, with page and line number]
Quoting the actual changed text — rather than describing it — is important. It removes ambiguity about what was done and lets reviewers check the revision without hunting through the manuscript. Even if you are using tracked changes in your submission, always reference the exact location.
Template for each response
A reliable starting template for each individual point:
Comment: [Verbatim quote from the reviewer]
Response: Thank you for this comment. [One sentence acknowledging the validity or identifying the source of the concern.] In response, we have [specific action: added / revised / reworded / expanded] [location: page X, lines Y–Z, Section N]. The revised text now reads:
[Quote exact new passage]
Responding to Comments You Disagree With
Not all reviewer comments are correct, and you are not required to accept every point. However, how you disagree matters enormously. Reviewers are typically experts in your field; even when a comment seems to reflect a misunderstanding, it often signals that your original text was ambiguous or incomplete.
Before deciding to push back, ask: could better writing have prevented this misunderstanding? If the answer is yes, revise for clarity even if your underlying conclusion does not change. In many cases, this is the most productive response to a comment you believe is technically incorrect — it improves the paper and avoids a dispute.
When genuine disagreement remains, the format for pushing back respectfully is:
- Acknowledge the concern: 'We understand why Reviewer 2 raises this concern, and we appreciate the careful reading.'
- State your position with evidence: 'However, our analysis follows the method established by [Author, Year], which accounts for this issue by... Our results are therefore consistent with...'
- Offer a compromise where possible: 'To address the reviewer's concern, we have added a paragraph to the Limitations section (page 14, lines 8–13) acknowledging this as an open question and directing readers to the relevant literature.'
Avoid phrases such as 'The reviewer has misunderstood our work' or 'This comment is outside the scope of the paper'. Even when technically accurate, these phrasings create friction that editors notice. Reviewers who feel dismissed are less likely to recommend acceptance, regardless of the scientific merit of your rebuttal.
Managing Revisions in Your Manuscript
Alongside the response letter, you will submit a revised manuscript — usually both a clean copy and a tracked-changes version showing every modification. Managing this carefully is important: a messy tracked-changes document creates extra work for reviewers and editors and reflects poorly on the revision.
- Accept or reject all previous tracked changes before starting: Begin your revision from a clean base, so only the current round of revisions is visible in the tracked version.
- Add line numbers: Required by most journals for the review process. In Word, go to Layout > Line Numbers. Line numbers make it much easier to cite exact locations in your response letter.
- Do not over-revise: Address the reviewers' points. Avoid making additional changes to sections not flagged — unnecessary edits introduce new errors and make it harder for reviewers to verify the revision.
- Update your abstract if needed: If the revision substantively changed your paper's scope or conclusions, update the abstract to match. This is one of the most commonly overlooked steps.
- Check your reference list: Adding new references to address reviewer comments is common. Ensure every new entry is formatted correctly and consistently with the rest of the list.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- 1Missing a comment: Reviewers notice if their points are not addressed. Number every comment and check systematically before submitting.
- 2Vague responses: 'We have revised the relevant section' is not enough. State what changed, where, and quote the new text.
- 3Excessive defensiveness: Pushing back on too many points, or in an aggressive tone, signals to editors that you are not open to feedback — even when your scientific position is correct.
- 4Submitting late without communication: If you need more time than the deadline allows, contact the editor before the deadline and request an extension. Most editors accommodate reasonable requests made in advance.
- 5Introducing new errors: Major revisions frequently introduce new formatting, citation, or language errors. Run a full check on the revised manuscript before resubmitting.
- 6Forgetting to update the cover letter: Your resubmission needs a new, specific cover letter that references the revision history and the key changes made.
- 7Changing the file format: Submit in the same format the journal originally requested unless they specify otherwise for revisions.
Before You Resubmit: Run a Final Check
Major revisions almost always introduce new issues. References added in a hurry may not match the journal's citation style. Restructured sections may push the manuscript over the word limit. New paragraphs may contain language inconsistencies or awkward phrasing. These are easy to miss when your attention is focused on addressing reviewer arguments.
Running PoolText on your revised manuscript takes under two minutes. It checks the full document against the target journal's formatting requirements, reference style, word count limits, and language quality — generating a structured report that identifies any new issues introduced during revision, as well as anything from the original submission that was not caught earlier.
This step is particularly valuable before a major resubmission. It is the last point at which you can correct errors without the manuscript entering another full review cycle.
Upload your revised manuscript to PoolText before you submit to the journal portal. Catching a reference style inconsistency or a word-count overage now takes minutes. Catching it after another round of peer review takes months.
"After six weeks addressing 21 reviewer comments, I ran the revised manuscript through PoolText and found two new reference formatting errors and a word count overage I had completely missed. Fifteen minutes to fix — instead of another round of revisions.", Dr. Ana Ferreira, University of Lisbon