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Sample: Reply to Reviewers, Before and After Editing

A real reply-to-reviewers letter, shown before and after editing, so you can see what changes and why before you send yours.

20K+

Paper edited

365 days

Availability

18 years

Helping academics

Most authors have never seen a good reply-to-reviewers letter. You write yours alone, at the end of a long revision, trying to sound confident but not defensive, and you have nothing to compare it against.

This page exists so you have something to compare it against.

What the sample shows

A genuine reply letter in two versions — as the author wrote it, and as it read after editing — with the reasoning for each change. Names and identifying details are removed.

How to open without apologising for the paper
Structuring point-by-point so an editor can follow it without hunting
Saying exactly what changed in the manuscript, and where
Disagreeing with a reviewer while keeping them on side
Handling a comment based on a misreading of your work
Closing without over-promising

The three things that go wrong most often

Sounding defensive. Editors read hundreds of these. A letter that argues rather than answers stands out for the wrong reason.

Vague change descriptions. “We have revised the manuscript accordingly” tells an editor nothing and forces them to go looking. Say what you changed and give the location.

Silently ignoring a comment. Every point needs a response, even if the response is that you have chosen not to make that change and here is why.

You are allowed to disagree

Reviewers are sometimes wrong, and sometimes they have misread something. Editors know this. A well-argued disagreement strengthens your position — the skill is in making the misreading look understandable rather than making the reviewer look careless. The sample shows one worked example of exactly that.

If you would rather not do it alone

We edit reply letters alongside the revised manuscript, so that what the letter promises and what the paper does are recognisably the same thing. That matters more than the prose: editors check.

Not sure what you need?

Send us the reviewer comments and your draft reply. We will tell you honestly whether it needs work — sometimes the answer is that it is already fine.

Uni-edit editor preparing a reply to journal reviewers

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Kind words of Happy Clients

The Uni-edit team worked hard to complete the editorial work in a week. I believe all the Academic scholars ever work with Uni-edit will recommend it certainly.

Associate Professor Hung-Bin Lee

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Da-Yeh University

The main reason I would keep sending my papers to Uni-edit and recommend Uni-edit to other professors is they allow me to focus on improving the research content and do not need to worry about the language writing in English.

Chang-Wei Huang

The Department of Civil Engineering, Chung Yuan Christian University

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asked questions

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How long does a editing jobs typically take?

Most editing takes 5 days including weekend. Our customer service manager will provide a delivery date with the detailed quotation

I think my English is poor. Do I need the rewriting service?

If you think your paper needs rewriting, please ask customer service in your email. We will determine if rewriting is required and inform you before editing your paper. Generally, if more than 20% of sentences need rewriting (the whole sentence needs correction) then you must use the rewriting service. For rewriting, you do need to choose a Level. We will do the best editing job possible.

Who will edit my paper?

To achieve a consistently high quality service, Uni-edit uses two roles of editors edit your conference or journal paper. The first Editor is qualified in your general area of expertise. The second Editor is also qualified in your general area and has exceptional English and editing skills. All Editors are professionally trained. Our Senior Editor takes overall responsibility for the quality of editing and guarantees all editing performed. Authors are often surprised how the Editors seem to understand the content of the research, even if it is very technical or mathematical.

For a journal paper, Level 2 or Level 3 editing?

You can choose. After your manuscript receives Level 2 English editing, the reviewer of the journal will most likely be satisfied with the English in your paper. For many journals, Level 2 English editing is sufficient. However, if the journal has a high impact factor or highly reputable, choose Level 3 English editing.

For very technical papers, Level 2 English editing is generally sufficient. For papers that have a lot of prose (such as papers in the humanities), Level 3 is often recommended.

Do you check figures and tables?

Yes, our editing is not only about correct English grammar. Our English editing is about supporting you to get your paper published and help the readers understand your research. Therefore, we check figure captions and labels; information in tables and we check that text descriptions match equations. We also check the text descriptions match graphs and charts.