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“Publish or Perish ” is a wise old Ph.D./ Academia proverb. As academicians, you are expected to publish your research, which involves tackling reviewer comments. While you completely understand the purpose of peer-review, it doesn’t mean that receiving comments on your publications isn’t at times overwhelming, disheartening, or frustrating.
Inkpothub has been researched some points to help you in the peer-review process that is Publish or Perish. The way to tackle reviewer comments…
Step1: Read briefly the review email sent to you and then look at the major revisions required. Then calm down and relax. Wait for the next day and stay calm. So, the disheartened feelings find a little rest. Start afresh day with a new idea. (mostly cover all the points suggested for revision)
Step 2: Simply copy and paste all the reviewer comments into a table in a Word document then make a column for the reviewer comment, a column for which part of the manuscript the comment relates to (e.g. line number or general section), and then a column for the response to the comments. You should think as the first author, and therefore start doing the majority of the edits.
Step 3: Read the revision instructions carefully. Different journals have different ways to outline the revisions (e.g. track changes, highlighted, no highlight etc.).
Step 4: Tackle the ‘easy’ revisions first. Now that all the comments are in a table it is easy to see which comments are easy changes (formatting, spelling, word changes, etc.). Go through them first. Ensuring that you are highlighting the comments that you have addressed as you go. It feels good to have comments ticked off, even if they are the easy ones.
Step 5: Simply set out a rough plan for how you will address the remaining comments. Don’t take it at a high pace, go slowly. Set a goal for addressing one major comment per day. This will help you maintain a balance and also you will not be overwhelmed by the work required.
Step 6: Keep making notes either in the table or as comments on the document of the reviewer suggestions. So, that you are sure how to address it. Kindly ask the co-authors for their suggestions.
Step 7: Ensure that the responses you put in the table are addressed from the reviewer comments and are appropriately worded. Make sure to provide a detailed response, and then make a suggested change. Triple check to ensure that you have not missed any comments.
Step 8: Cross fingers and hit submit on the resubmission.
http://inkpothub.com/research-stories/persistence-is-the-key-to-publication-dr-manu-sharma-post-doc-fellow-icssr/
http://inkpothub.com/research-news/theres-no-winter-break-from-publish-or-perish/
