[Month Day, Year]
Journal: [Name of the Journal]
Manuscript ID: [Some alphanumeric ID assigned to your manuscript]
Title: “[Title of your manuscript here]”
Author(s): [LastName1, FirstName1; LastName2, FirstName2; etc.]
Dear [Editor’s Name Here],
Thank you for your comments, and we look forward to the opportunity to publish this work in [Journal Name]. In the next pages, we reproduce all the comments and questions provided by you and by the reviewers as well as our responses. We believe the comments from the editor and the reviewers have helped us strengthen this project and would like to thank you and the reviewers for your time and effort to help us make this an even more interesting manuscript. We have updated the manuscript to address the reviewers’ questions.
Sincerely,
[Author1FirstName LastName, Author2FirstName LastName, etc.
[Institution]
[Department]
Phone: [(###) ###-####]
Email: [leadauthoremail@institution.com]
------------------------------------
(Page Break)
Response to Reviewers Document
“[Article Title]”
[LastName1, FirstName1; LastName2, FirstName2; etc.]
Comments from the Editor and Responses:
To address your comments, we have made the following changes:
(i) Editor comment #1. Often editors will not provide their feedback as individual comments the way that reviewers do. In that case, do your best to summarize the editor’s words into a series of separate comments and reproduce or summarize those comments here.
Multiple sentences or paragraphs giving your response. This might involve responding to the editor’s questions or statements as well as describing what actions you took to address those changes. If so, start with a paragraph that response to the editor’s questions.
Then use a separate paragraph here to describe your actions. Be succinct but thorough. Cover all the important points, but be efficient with your grammar. At the end of this action-description paragraph, point the editor towards relevant line numbers, and then reproduce that updated portion of the manuscript by pasting it below in a smaller font, as shown in the next sentence and following quotes. Please refer to lines ###-### of the revised manuscript:
“
Verbatim text from the updated manuscript. This text comes from lines ###-### that you referred to above at the end of your action-description paragraph. The text should be a smaller font than your response.
”
(ii) Editor comment #2. Either their actual comment or the summary of the individual comment you identified from reading the editor’s message.
Your response to editor’s comment here. One paragraph responding to them. One paragraph describing your actions.
“
Verbatim text from the updated manuscript. This text comes from lines ###-### that you referred to above at the end of your action-description paragraph. The text should be a smaller font than your response.
”
(Repeat the above structure for each of the editor’s comments.)
Reviewer Comments and Responses:
Reviewer 1:
R1: “Quote Reviewer 1’s opening statement here. Often this will include a summary statement of the article and some other information that you don’t really need to respond to. Still, paste that information so that the entirety of the reviewer’s words are quoted in this document.
Then paste Reviewer 1’s actual first comment—one that requires your response and action—here, verbatim. Once you’ve pasted all of their comment, end the quotation and move on to your response.”
Begin each response by thanking the reviewer for their feedback. Then jump directly into responding to their comment or answering their question. For long responses—when you’re pivoting or simply providing helpful context to the reviewer—feel free to take up a paragraph with your response.
Then start a new paragraph describing your actions. Be specific. Also describe how your actions satisfy the reviewer’s comment. At the end of this paragraph, point the reviewer towards relevant line numbers, and then reproduce that updated portion of the manuscript by pasting it below in a smaller font, as shown in the next sentence and following quotes. Please refer to lines ###-### of the revised manuscript:
“
Verbatim text from the updated manuscript. This text comes from lines ###-### that you referred to above at the end of your action-description paragraph. This copied text might take up a lot of space. That’s okay. By putting it in a smaller text and offsetting it with quotation marks, we help it to be comprehensive without dominating the visual space of the Response to Reviewers document.
When we have long amounts of reproduced text, it won’t dominate the Response to Reviewers document because the smaller text will deemphasize it and the other elements’ stronger formatting will help them stand out.
”
R1: “Quote Reviewer 1’s second comment here. Many comments will be a bit shorter and take up less visual space.”
For short responses, when simply implementing the reviewer’s feedback, you can combine the response and action-description into a single paragraph. After the response, launch right into your actions. Conclude as usual: refer to the line numbers and then reproduce the text. It’s okay if comments and response run from the end of one page to the beginning next. Don’t feel like you need to insert strategic page breaks to keep each comment and response on the same page. Just keep the format consistent and the reviewers won’t have any trouble keeping themselves oriented.
“
Verbatim text from the updated manuscript. Shorter comments might require smaller changes and less reproduced text.
”
R1: “Continue quoting the Reviewer 1’s comments until you have listed and responded to all of them in the consistent format. Then move to Reviewer 2.”
For rebuttals, we don’t make any changes to the revised manuscript, so we don’t need to refer to any line numbers or reproduce any text. Instead, spend one paragraph thanking the reviewer for the suggestion but stating that you disagree. Then give another paragraph or two defending your position. Be gracious and succinct. You don’t want any long-winded, defensive monologues here. Simply state your reasoning and provide one or two references from the literature if helpful. References can help you defend your methods, your interpretation of a result, or your conclusions. It’s especially helpful to refer to a publication from the Journal that you are submitting to.
Reviewer 2:
R2: “Quote Reviewer 2’s opening statement here. Put three empty lines—i.e. hit enter three times—when you start the comments for a new reviewer. It’s important to make a strong visual signal for each reviewer to scan ahead to.
Then paste Reviewer 2’s actual first comment—one that requires your response and action—here, verbatim. Once you’ve pasted all of their comment, end the quotation and move on to your response.”
Some reviewer comments will be very simple. They might, for example, point out a grammatical error. In that case simply state that you corrected the error, and end as usual. Please refer to lines ###-### of the revised manuscript:
“
Verbatim text from the updated manuscript. This text comes from lines ###-###. It’s short because it’s just a grammar fix.
”
(Continue the above structure for the rest of the Reviewers and the rest of their comments.)
End of Response to Reviewers Document