Effective Communication with Your Editor: How to Work Together for a Stronger Research Manuscript
Blog Highlights
- Provide editors with all the essential information like journal name, formatting requirements, or any other specific requests during the first round of editing itself.
- Respond to each of the editor’s comments individually when you want to ask them questions. Clearly explain why you agree or disagree with the edits and request alternate suggestions if your intended meaning has been changed.
- Build a good rapport with your editor right from the first round of checks so that they can support you even during the resubmission process.
What Should I Share with my Editor?
How to Address Editor’s Comments
Finalizing the Manuscript Before Resubmission
Introduction
All research manuscripts must be finetuned before submission. And when you seek a professional editor’s help, what is it that authors can do to ensure the manuscript editor gives their best? This blog guides new authors on communicating effectively with manuscript editors to prepare a strong research manuscript for journal submissions.
What Should I Share with my Manuscript Editor?
Editors follow a specific process when editing and proofreading manuscripts. However, for them to provide you with customized support, you need to share key details with them.
- What is your target journal?
- Do you require journal formatting?
- Are there any sections you would like to be excluded from the edit?
- Do you need additional documents and files like cover letter or graphical abstract as part of your initial submission?
These are a few standard questions that you will need to answer when placing an editing request with any professional service. How does it help editors?
Knowing the target journal lets the editors know what the journal expects from the submissions they receive. And they will tailor their edits accordingly.
- Are there any word count limits recommended?
- Should the abstract be structured or unstructured?
- Does the journal require the paper to be formatted using a template or do they provide a set of instructions?
- Should the figures be uploaded separately during submission?
- Must the tables be placed at the end of the article?
Editors will get a complete picture of how the final draft should be prepared.
Excluding sections from the edit. This may be unusual. But at times, authors would not want certain sections, sub-sections, or paragraphs altered in any way. For example, if you’re still working on some of the sub-sections under Methods, you can instruct the editors:
“Please avoid making changes in sub-sections 2.1 and 2.2 in the Methods section. I’ve included them in the manuscript only for contextual reference but I don’t want them modified in any way.”
This will give editors the context for editing the rest of the manuscript while making sure that your request is still met.
When it comes to preparation of additional documents and files, editors will know the right people to connect with on your behalf. For instance, an expert designer will create a graphical abstract for you as per your research paper and the journal requirements. This way, you will receive complete support for finalizing your initial submission.
In addition to these, you can let manuscript editors know of specificities for the assignment.
“I’m submitting to a high impact journal. I want not just the linguistic factors checked but also the scientific and technical aspects in the paper.”
“This is my second submission to the same journal. Previously, my manuscript has been rejected for XYZ reasons. I have now reworked as per the journal’s feedback but I want a thorough proofreading done before submitting.”
“This is my first time submitting to an international journal. I do not feel confident of my English and want to know all areas of improvement.”
Giving clear instructions lets the expert editors know exactly what you’re expecting and they will customize their edits and feedback suitably.
How to Address Editor’s Comments
After the first round of editing, the editor is bound to have comments, questions, suggestions, and feedback on your manuscript. Now, you may agree with most of the edits suggested. But some you may disagree with. And some of the edits made might not be entirely clear to you.
So, you need to make your opinions clear to the editor. Here are some tips to effectively address editor’s comments:
1. Thoroughly read the feedback shared. You may start by adding a general comment at the beginning thanking the editor for their work on your manuscript. This helps maintain a good rapport with your editor.
2. Next, accept all the changes you agree with. This way, there’ll be no confusion regarding which ones are unclear to you.
3. Reply individually to each unclear comment. State your doubt and be specific about what exactly needs to be clarified. Here’s an example:
“I do not understand this comment. What is meant by implications? I’m not familiar with this term. Please explain.”
4. Let’s say you disagree with some edits. Highlight that part of the text and add a comment of your own explaining why the change does not suit you.
“I think this edit changes my intended meaning. What I want to say is ‘the blob analysis, which is a search technique, was used to examine the air bubbles in sequential images.’ The edited sentence seems to say that ‘the air bubbles were analyzed as blobs.’ That would be incorrect. Please suggest alternative edit to retain my meaning.”
In some cases, you may request Q&A with the editor. Check with your service provider and see if an option of Editor Q&A is available.
Finalizing the Manuscript Before Resubmission
After the initial submission, the journal editor often requests minor or major revisions before acceptance. At this stage, you might again require your manuscript editor’s assistance.
Here, you’ll have multiple options at your disposal:
- You revise the manuscript yourself and resubmit to the journal
- You make the revisions and have it checked by your editor before resubmission
- In addition to checking manuscript revisions, you ask the editor to cross-check your responses to peer reviewer comments as well
With the first option, there’s no intervention from the editor. But with the second and third, you need to again communicate effectively with the editor regarding your expectations. Here are a few key tips:
- After making the requested revisions, share the edited manuscript and the journal feedback with your editor so they can cross-verify that you’ve addressed everything and not overlooked some minor feedback point.
- You can let them know that editing and proofreading need not be extensive for the rest of the manuscript, but the revised sections must be thoroughly reviewed.
- If you have prepared your responses to peer reviewer comments and want your editor to review them for you, let them know about this. They will ensure that the language, tone, and content of the responses align with the changes made in the manuscript. For example, the correct line and page numbers should be specified after incorporating the recommended changes.
If you have further questions, ALWAYS reach out to your editor before resubmitting the revised manuscript. It’s crucial for you to work harmoniously with your editor to make the finalized manuscript as publication ready as possible. Depending on your submission stage and need, you could want more than just editing support. Check out Editage’s Publication Service Plans and choose the one that best suits your requirement.
