D. Cover Letter for Resubmission

When one submits the revised version of a manuscript, the cover letter is slightly different from the one for the initial submission. Authors will be expected to make clear how they responded to the suggestions of the editor and the reviewers. In many journals, the editor might explicitly mention a separate document to outline the revisions in detail. In such cases, the authors can start with a general statement of their changes in the cover letter, not forgetting to thank the reviewers for the time they spent on reading the manuscript. Then they can append the details of their changes in a separate document. Note that not all suggestions have to be accepted. In some cases, the author might feel that the suggestion might conflict with one’s own objectives for that paper. In such situations, the authors can explain their reasons for their opinion and explain the alternate strategies they adopted for their revision.

The detailed response can take many forms. In many cases, authors organize the response in two parallel columns. In the first, they mention the suggestions of the editor and each reviewer. In the parallel line on the second column, they indicate how they responded to that suggestion.

Others go line by line through the revisions to comment next to each of them and elaborate their own responses and changes.

It is important for authors not to ignore any major suggestions of the reviewers. In most cases, the revised version will be sent to the same reviewers for a second review. The reviewers and editor will decline publication when they see that the author has not acted upon some of the important suggestions.

–Suresh Canagarajah