Yesterday I posted about a less-than-productive set of comments from at least one reviewer, and some contradictory comments from the other reviewers, related tof a manuscript I have in submission to a major development journal.  This is not at all uncommon – I’ve only had two or three articles ever accepted without revision, and have gone three or more rounds on a few.  However, to manage this sort of thing successfully requires good editorial guidance – i.e. what comments are relevant, whose comments are more appropriate (when there is a conflict in the comments), how much revision is really needed?

Well, my polite-but-firm 1500-word missive to the editors of the journal has resulted in immediate action – from my inbox this morning:

Dear Edward

Thank you for your email. We have an editorial board meeting next week during which I will circulate your comments. I will get back to you shortly thereafter.

Best wishes,

XXXX

Now, this guarantees nothing . . . however, now my very detailed response and suggested edits will end up in front of the editorial board, and hopefully I will get a sense of what is actually needed to make this publishable.  I also might get some sense of how they plan to review a resubmission . . . I really don’t want this to take another 5-6 months, and I really don’t want Reviewer 1 to ever see this piece again!

More as it happens . . .