Responding to Peer Reviewers

Q: What can I do when I can't agree with the reviewer's comments?

Detailed Question -

After the third round of review, we received major revisions again. One reviewer was very satisfied with our revision but another showed the opposite response. He/she said that we have to conduct another study to test our hypothesis. But this is impossible because there is no way to access the qualified participants. so we tested another way following other previous studies. But the reviewer doesn't agree with our approach even though the same method was used in previous research. Can I ask the editor to change the reviewer? Or is there any other solution to this?

Asked by Jung Min Jang on 12 Apr, 2017

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It is not uncommon for reviewers to have opposite or even conflicting views about a particular paper. Thus, I don't think the editor would agree to changing the reviewer just because you don't agree with his/her suggestions. In fact, it would not be advisable to even make such a request as it may annoy the editor. It is absolutely fine to disagree with a reviewer's comment. You can send a point-by-point response to the editor explaining why you disagree with the reviewer's suggestion. Make sure your response is backed by supporting evidence. If your viewpoint is justified, the editor will definitely consider it.