Author Suggestions for Addressing Reviewer Comments

To complement the tips for addressing reviewer comments that we shared yesterday, today we’re sharing suggestions from longtime Academic Medicine authors. This post is part of a series on tips for addressing reviewer comments during the revisions part of the publication process. You can read the other posts in the series here. Daniel J. Schumacher, MD, MEd, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and University of Cincinnati College of Medicine It’s important to not take reviewer comments personally. They want to see the paper published or they would not have asked for revisions. Remember this as you address their comments. My best advice for approaching the revisions focus on three tips. First, make the requested changes unless you have a very strong reason for not making them. I feel like one of the pitfalls of authors in making revisions is being too wedded to what they initially wrote. Let this go. It is better to have a published paper with a little less of what you initially said than a paper that is not accepted. Second, deleting things from your paper can sometimes be the best way to address a reviewer comment. This is particularly true if you do not agree with the comment. If this is the case, ask yourself: would the paper be fine without this in it? If the answer is yes, then just delete it. Finally, be open to adding to your limitations. If the reviewers raise a concern that you cannot address based on how you have conducted you...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Tags: Addressing Reviewer Comments Series Featured author resources peer review scholarship writing series Source Type: blogs