How to Write Good Responses to
Reviews of Journal Papers
The rule of thumb is to save reviewers' and editor's
time. Ideally, you should provide
sufficient details and arguments so that they can make decision based on your
replies ONLY, rather than referring to your original and revised manuscripts.
1. First, give a Revision Summary to list the major changes
that you have made according to the review comments.
2. Second, give a Detailed Replies to Review Comments to
answer every comment in the order appearing in the review.
3. Third, give details of the revision and the location of
modifications, such as "We revise at the third line, second paragraph of
Section 2 of the manuscript, as follows ..." rather than simply writing
"We have revised according to the comment/suggestion."
4. Fourth, directly quote to the response how you revised
according to the suggestions, rather than asking the reviewers to check the
revised manuscript. Use a different font or color to indicate that the
following are quoted texts.
5. Judge whether the comment could be
a common question from readers. If so, you have to revise the manuscript accordingly
and indicate the changes you have made in Reponses, rather than only replying
to the reviewers in Responses.