Writing Exercises - Decision Letter

Diagnose a Decision Letter

For this exercise read a decision letter. You can use one you have received, or perhaps even better, a colleague’s decision letter. I think it will be easier to use someone else’s decision letter for this exercise, so that you can be more dispassionate. Read the letter and identify:

  1. The major issues the editor had with the paper (in descending order of importance, in your mind)

  2. The major issues each reviewer identified as the most pressing (again, in descending order of importance)

  3. What you think the authors should do about them. Identify the issues that are critical to address (i.e., the comments that will help the paper), those that are neutral (i.e., won’t hurt the paper); and if you’ve read the paper, the issues you think the authors should push back on (i.e., would hurt the paper).

Don’t go point by point; come up with major topic groupings and bundle whatever points you see fit into each category. What do you think the biggest, most critical problems are (i.e., the rejectable offenses) that the authors must address for the next round, and what changes can they make that would “do no harm.”

In terms of recommendations, you don’t have to be super detailed, but think about what the authors should do in general. If there’s something empirical the authors could do to try and address a particular point, note that.


© 2021 Timothy G. Pollock

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