Recommendations for Responding to Reviewer Comments for Manuscript Resubmissions

Abstract

Medical manuscripts are rarely accepted without revisions. In some cases, authors are invited to revise and resubmit after they address reviewers’ comments and recommendations for improving the manuscript. When resubmitting the manuscript, authors—including contributing medical writers—need to craft a document explaining how they have responded to all the comments. To craft this document, authors and medical writers need to format the response clearly by gathering and categorizing the comments. They also need to craft thoughtful responses that express gratitude and use a diplomatic and respectful tone—especially when they disagree with the reviewers. With this approach, the authors have a greater likelihood of their resubmitted manuscript being accepted for publication.