Writing a response to reviewers comments

When you receive reviewer comments, have a quick read and let them sit for a day or two. You can then start to go through the comments one at a time, and jot some brief notes with ideas about how to respond.

Some comments will be small and straight-forward to address. Others will feel frustrating because the reviewer didn't "get it", or missed some crucial information. It is then the writer's job to clarify. Sometimes a big change will be necessary, and sometimes you'll just need to argue why you can't/don't want to make the change.

Book a meeting with co-authors and with Krista to discuss the trickier points. Ultimately, you will need to submit a response letter. Typically you will copy-paste the entire review into a new document, put all the comments in bold, then in unbolded text write a response. It is a good idea to quote specific changes and to indicate the page number. As page numbers will change as the text length changes, it's a good idea to highlight any page numbers in yellow so that they can be checked as a final step. Sample response letters are available on the lab Drive.