Responding to Peer Reviewer Comments: A Free Example Alphabetic character
Responding to the comments peer reviewers offer when they assess your enquiry newspaper can be every bit challenging as writing the original manuscript, peculiarly when the necessity of revising your paper to resolve bug is considered equally well. How y'all respond to the criticism you receive can have a significant bear on on whether your paper will ultimately be published or non, then getting your letter right is imperative. Although the process of responding, revising and maybe responding and revising yet again can be frustrating and time consuming, it is of import to remember that you, the journal editor with whom you are communicating and the peer reviewers who are assessing your writing and research are all working toward the aforementioned goal – the timely publication of an excellent enquiry newspaper. A professional collegial arroyo that adopts a courteous and objective tone to deal conspicuously and thoroughly with every detail and issue will make the work of the editor and reviewers more than efficient and the publication wheel as a whole smoother and more successful. Your prose should, of course, be formal and correct in every way, and so do read and polish your response until every judgement is every bit clear, authentic and precise equally you can brand information technology.
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Since each response letter of the alphabet to reviewer comments is unique, the letter below can just serve every bit a constructive case equally you lot arts and crafts your own response. The names, titles, contact information and publishing situation used in this letter are entirely fictional, but the principles and procedures are realistic and audio. The complete date and full mailing addresses are used in the style of a traditional business alphabetic character despite the assumption of an email format. You may or may not want to adopt this approach, but do exist sure to provide your current contact information and the proper noun of the editor yous are addressing (normally the editor who sent you lot the decision alphabetic character), his or her championship and the title of the journal. The subject line above the salutation is not strictly necessary unless requested in the editor's or journal's instructions, but if the journal has given your manuscript a number or some other form of reference, practice include it. The manner in which changes should be made and the revised manuscript submitted vary among journals and editors. This alphabetic character assumes that the authors take been asked to mark changes past using blood-red font and resubmit their revised manuscript with their response via email, but practise check guidelines and the conclusion letter you received for the requirements for your responses and revised manuscript, including any information on deadlines.

Continue in listen equally you write that non merely the editor just all of the reviewers may finish upwardly seeing everything you lot have written. Editors may cut and paste and share your responses as they run across fit to achieve the results they envision for your paper, so exist prepared for this possibility. You should definitely address each of the reviewers individually as yous respond to his or her comments, aiming for a layout that makes information technology absolutely clear which comment you are responding to at any given moment and exactly what you have inverse in your manuscript. Some authors use different fonts and colours to distinguish reviewer comments from author responses and changes, but do be enlightened that these features tin can exist lost in online formats, so a Word document or pdf file would be a more than reliable choice for such formatting. Do not hesitate to repeat information equally necessary, incorporating small adjustments geared at the person you are addressing in each case (the discussion of Table i in the letter below is an instance of this), just remember non to write annihilation to one reviewer that you would not want another one to read. If there are matters of a specially sensitive nature that you wish to communicate to the editor simply, exist certain to discuss them in a divide document that is conspicuously not intended for reviewer eyes.

Finally, practice not neglect to thank the editor and reviewers for their observations and comments. Their fourth dimension is precious and many comments on your manuscript mean that they accept dedicated a pregnant portion of it to help you better your work. Be careful non to overstate your gratitude, all the same, and risk the impression of hollow flattery. Thoughtful attending to each of the observations and suggestions your reviewers offering will repay their efforts far more than effectively.

A Sample Response to the Comments of Peer Reviewers

Edward Researcher
Palaeography Institute
1717 Author's Lane
South River, MI, USA, 484848
734-734-7344
edresearcher@palaeographyinstitute.edu

Dr Helen Wordsmith
Assistant Editor
Periodical of the Shipping Manuscripts Order
717 Reader'south Row
London, UK, SW6 9DE
hwordsmith_ae@jsms.co.uk

November 14, 2017

Subject area: Revision and resubmission of manuscript JSMS 17-N6688

Honey Dr Wordsmith,

Cheers for your alphabetic character and the opportunity to revise our newspaper on 'Hidden Treasure: Scribal Hands in the Notorious Brigantine Manuscript.' The suggestions offered by the reviewers have been immensely helpful, and we also appreciate your insightful comments on revising the abstract and other aspects of the paper.

I have included the reviewer comments immediately subsequently this letter and responded to them individually, indicating exactly how we addressed each concern or problem and describing the changes we accept fabricated. The revisions accept been approved by all iv authors and I take again been called as the corresponding author. The changes are marked in crimson in the paper equally you requested, and the revised manuscript is attached to this email message.
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Virtually of the revisions prompted past the reviewers' comments are minor and require no further explanation than what appears in my responses below, just I did want to bring Tabular array i to your attention. This table lists, locates and briefly describes each of the hands we have separated from the many found in the Brigantine Manuscript, dated at least approximately and, in the instance of the Pantofola di Seta's first mate, identified with certainty. Information technology does not list hands and scripts about which we remain uncertain, and for this reason Reviewer 1 suggests that information technology be removed and the descriptions of hands that it contains used to lengthen the descriptions in the main text of the newspaper. Reviewer two, on the other hand, would like to see the table longer, with all possible easily and scripts included and tentative dates provided wherever possible. We considered both solutions and finally decided on a longer table equally a tool that sets the information out clearly and comparatively. Our assumption is that readers will more readily render to a table when seeking information on the manuscript's scribes and production. This allowed united states to shorten and simplify the discussion of scribal characteristics in the main text of the paper, but it has resulted in a larger table, so nosotros are eager to know your perspective on the matter. Although comments from both reviewers suggest that our original approach was not as successful as nosotros would accept liked, the tabular array could hands exist removed every bit per Reviewer i's advice and the text lengthened instead if that would exist preferable. In fact, nosotros tried the revisions that way at first and would be happy to send that version along as well if it might be helpful.

In response to your comments on the abstract, nosotros take toned down the codicological and palaeographical terminology aimed at manuscript specialists and played up the new certainty that this book belonged to real pirates and was treated as the Pantofola di Seta'south log by a offset mate who was very proud of the crew's achievements. Those opening sentences y'all mentioned now read: 'Like the pirates whose barbaric activities information technology celebrates, the Brigantine Manuscript slipped off into the fog in the early fourteenth century, finally emerging in 2015. It had been miraculously preserved for 700 years in a hidden chamber carved into the keelson of a recently excavated Mediterranean brigantine named Pantofola di Seta (the Silk Slipper). All-encompassing test of the book's contents and scripts has now lifted more of that fog, revealing at least five singled-out hands writing over a catamenia of more than fourscore years and one of them a rather gifted first mate – Benutto Nero – who logged daily entries in passable Latin for almost vi years from 1282 to 1288.' We promise you agree that this opening is much more engaging, particularly for non-specialist readers, simply we are certainly happy to make further changes to the abstract.

Regarding more than minor matters, we have now changed our spelling and phrasing patterns from American to British English. I apologise for neglecting that requirement in the author instructions when we originally submitted the manuscript. We have also fabricated expert utilize of the two articles you mentioned. Susan Goodorder's paper did indeed help us refine the subsections and their headings in the discussion section of our manuscript, and General Saltydog's glossary of nautical terms enabled us to utilize more appropriate language when discussing ships and seamanship – 'ropes,' for instance, are at present 'lines' throughout and we are much clearer on terms such equally 'leeboard,' 'starboard' and 'sheet.'

Nosotros hope the revised manuscript will ameliorate adapt the Periodical of the Aircraft Manuscripts Lodge but are happy to consider farther revisions, and nosotros give thanks you for your connected interest in our research.

Sincerely,

Edward Researcher

Edward Researcher
Professor of Medieval Latin
Palaeography Plant

Reviewer Comments, Writer Responses and Manuscript Changes

Reviewer 1

Comment 1: 'Hidden Treasure: Scribal Hands in the Notorious Brigantine Manuscript' was an engaging and informative read and the authors' assessment of hands and scripts clear and authentic. The newspaper is perfect for the Journal of the Shipping Manuscripts Order. I am uncertain that Table 1 is necessary and I accept discovered 1 grammatical error which unfortunately appears throughout the manuscript and must be repaired, but beyond that I take very little helpful commentary to offer.

Response: Thanks! We found your comments extremely helpful and have revised accordingly.

Comment 2: Table 1 does not contain all the scripts and hands discussed in the paper, so information technology seems incomplete. I preferred the lengthier descriptions in the main text and would recommend that the table be removed and the descriptions of the more certain easily it contains be used to lengthen those descriptions in the main text.

Response: Both you and the other reviewer commented on this table, and so nosotros are grateful to know that our electric current arroyo requires some rethinking. Unfortunately, your suggestions differ, with the 2d reviewer asking that Tabular array ane be lengthened to include all hands and scripts in the manuscript. We take considered both solutions and decided to keep Tabular array one, merely nosotros have also asked the assistant editor, Dr Wordsmith, for her feedback on this issue and are certainly willing to remove the table as you suggested if that proves best for the paper and the journal.

Changes: We lengthened the table by calculation the rest of the easily and scripts nosotros accept detected in the manuscript, describing each briefly and offer an guess date. We believe this sets the information out clearly and comparatively and is a format that readers volition readily return to when seeking information on the manuscript's scribes and product. Nosotros have not removed the descriptions of hands and scripts that you found useful in the principal text, but lengthening the table has immune us to shorten and simplify the overall discussion of scribal characteristics in the master text of the paper. The changes in both table and text appear in cherry type in the revised paper.

Comment 3: Grammer and sentence structure is acceptable for the nigh part, but dangling modifiers are a problem throughout the paper and at times obscure the authors' meaning. For example, this sentence appears on p.6: 'With his entrails already tumbling out on the deck, the oarsman gave his victim a final boot and lopped his caput off.' I'm most certain that the intention here is to suggest that the victim, non the attacking oarsman, is suffering loss of entrails, only that is not what the judgement says. Here and elsewhere corrections are required.

Response: Cheers so much for communicable these glaring and disruptive errors, which we have at present corrected.

Changes: Nosotros take gone through the entire manuscript carefully and adapted every relevant sentence to avoid dangling modifiers and clarify our meaning. For example, the sentence you noted at present reads: 'The oarsman waited until his victim'due south entrails were tumbling out on the deck earlier he gave him one last kick and lopped his head off.' This and other revised sentences are marked in ruby-red in the revised manuscript.

Reviewer two

Comment ane: It is clear that the authors know a skillful deal more about medieval manuscripts than about seamanship, only the manuscript is worthy of publication provided the following matters are addressed.
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Response: Cheers for your cess. We are indeed manuscript specialists who are learning more than about ships and the sea via our studies of the Brigantine Manuscript.

Comment 2: There seems to be some confusion in the paper about the meaning of 'leeboard' and 'starboard' and more generally I'd like to meet more accurate nautical terminology used. I wouldn't recommend the more obscure vocabulary of vessels and seamanship which the authors are unlikely to need in any case, but the near common applicable terms should certainly be used. 'Ropes' should exist 'lines,' 'back' of the boat should be 'stern' and then on.

Response: We agree that ameliorate use of nautical terminology would be more than authentic and precise and have taken your advice.

Changes: We consulted the nautical glossary compiled by General Saltydog that was recommended by the assistant editor, Dr Wordsmith, and improved or corrected every ambiguous or inaccurate term we detected. Each inverse word is marked in red in the revised newspaper, and we would be happy to make farther alterations.

Comment 3: Tabular array 1 seems also selective. It is obviously easier to include only those hands that the authors are sure about, but I would like to come across a complete listing of hands and scripts along with the authors' all-time guesses at possible dates. I suspect many of the journal's readers, especially those who are not manuscript specialists, would prefer this data in an effective tabular format.

Response: Give thanks you for reminding the states how important it is to nowadays complex cloth like details of hands and scripts in a curtailed and readily accessible way. Nosotros agree that the tabular array would exist amend if information technology included all easily in the manuscript and take made the following changes.

Changes: We lengthened the table past adding the remaining hands and scripts, describing each briefly and offer an approximate date. We believe this sets the information out clearly and comparatively and is a format that readers will return to when seeking information on the manuscript's scribes and production. We have not entirely removed the descriptions of hands and scripts from the main text of the paper, but lengthening the tabular array has allowed us to shorten and simplify the overall discussion of scribal characteristics in the main text. The changes in both table and text appear in reddish type in the revised paper.

Comment 4: The formatting of the discussion section seems inconsistent with the preceding sections of the manuscript and the periodical'southward guidelines. The discussion itself follows a logical line of reasoning for the well-nigh part and presents persuasive interpretations and conclusions, but information technology is a little complex at times, so more divisions and a more defined system of organisation would be helpful.
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Response: Cheers for this excellent observation. The discussion section is a piffling dumbo at times and could use more than structure and clear guidance for the reader.

Changes: We have added a number of subsections with informative headings that summarise key points in the word. Nosotros used every bit a model an article published by the Periodical of the Shipping Manuscripts Club and recommended by Dr Wordsmith, and we believe that the argument is clearer every bit a result, only we would welcome comments on particular sections and headings if you have further concerns. The new material is marked in red in the revised paper.

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