Principles of Replying to Reviewers' Comments: A Basic Guide

Principles of Replying to Reviewers' Comments: A Basic Guide

回覆審查意見之原則與範例

中國醫藥大學 安南醫院副院長

憂鬱症中心、身心介面研究中心主持人

精神醫學及神經科學教授 

The following skills are important not only for the paper submission, but also for organizing your replies to respond to important questions or comments from the reviewers or examimers after a seminar or laboratory meetings. It strengthens your logic and response skills, and you will impress the reviewers with a sense of competence, dedication and delicacy.

Focused on the goal of acceptance! The ideal outcome of a Reply Letter is to:

• Satisfy the editor completely, leading to direct acceptance without further review.
• Convince the reviewers that all their concerns have been adequately addressed, so that they do not need to revisit their original comments or the manuscript.
• Provide a clear, itemized response for each reviewer, addressing their specific comments in the order they were raised. This demonstrates careful consideration of their feedback and makes it easy for reviewers to track changes.

• Editor讀了以後覺得全部都有回答，直接決定接受 (不用再給Reviewers)。
• Editor交給Reviewers再審，Reviewers 讀了reply letter就直接感覺都有回答，完全不需要 (想) 再去找出之前他寫的、或去翻出文章全文來對照。
• 對個別的審查者「逐條」列出其對我們文章的建議，讓審查者不用再回去之前的檔案查詢，並且依照順序「逐條」回覆，讓審查者看到我們對他的意見之謹慎和重視。用不同格式(字體)「逐條」列出三個主要構成:(1) 審查者意見、(2) 我們的回覆、(3) 文章更新後的寫法和位置！

A well-structured response letter

• A well-structured response letter should include the following elements for each reviewer comment:
• Original reviewer comment: Clearly stated and easily identifiable.
• Author response: A detailed explanation of how the comment has been addressed.
• Specific changes made to the manuscript: The exact location of the changes and a description of the revisions.
• By following these principles, authors can significantly increase the likelihood of a positive outcome for their manuscript.

AVOID ARGUING. AVOID DEFENDING. AVOID EXPLAINING ANYTHING MORE THAN WHAT REVIEWERS ARE ASKING (Don't start new battles! If the reviewer is mistaken, provide a graceful way for them to back down!) 

不要開闢新戰場！如果審查者有錯，幫他找台階下！