Thread by @KerriBerriKerri

So you got major revisions - congratulations!
Below is a step-by-step guide to submitting a revised manuscript to a clinical journal
There are nuances but it's a relatively standard formula for most journals
I hope you find this 🧵 helpful!
#MedEd #tweetorial #MedTwitter 1/20

Copy and paste all comments from the email into a word doc. This is your 'response letter'.
Number each comment, by reviewer or sequentially.
Leave spaces to fill in your responses to each comment.
Format so their comments can be easily distinguished from your responses. 2/20

Examples in pic - many options.
Don’t rely on different font colour b/c when you cut and paste it into ‘response’ box, it will all be black.
Red ink has negative connotations and everything else seems weird. Italics makes it hard to read.
Underlining comments also ok. 3/20

Find the original word documents and figures you submitted. Rename them and save them as title.R1_marked_up, Figure.R1 etc. and track all changes. You will need to submit a marked_up and _clean copy with the revisions. 4/20

Now the fun part. Address every comment. Starting with the response letter. Be gracious. Say as little as possible while answering the query. For convenience, I include “the revised phrase or section bits” in the response letter so they can see exactly how I changed it. 5/20

When you’re happy with your responses, go through manuscript to make changes. All changes need to be identical between your response letter and the revised manuscript. Go through each response and each change to make sure they match! Track changes on! 6/20

Next send response letter, revised manuscript, figures, etc. to all co-authors for review. While you will submit the figures separately, embedding them at the end of a word doc is super helpful for co-author review. 7/20

Send a file with title.R1_marked_up_YOURINITIALS and ask them to return with their initials added on and give a time frame: 7- 10 days is usually sufficient. With ++ authors, a dream scenario is sequential feedback on one draft, but that’s BBQ Sauce. 8/20

Your marked_up doc now has a bunch of tracked changes, but also side bars where your co-author typed ‘What a stupid q from Reviewer 2!’. Delete all comments. I repeat, delete all comments. Those should not be submitted. 9/20

Also accept all changes using the control or R/L-click method that leaves them highlighted and tracked in the marked_up document, but removes side comments. There should be NO SIDE comments on your submitted revision. 10/20

At top of the response letter, write a new brief cover letter to the Editor"
e.g.
Dear Professor who handled my paper (spell name right!!),
Thank you for your letter regarding our manuscript ‘Title’ (journal-id-number). We appreciate the thoughtful comments from the" 11/20

"reviewers and have amended our paper to address their concerns. Please find our point-by-point responses below. We would be happy to make any other modifications needed to meet the high publication standards of ‘journal’.
Sincerely, on behalf of our co-authors,
1st+Sr" 12/20

Read it again to ensure responses & revised manuscript match. Re-do word count. At re-submission, they may want a specific format – read the instructions to authors! Save the marked_up copy. Now accept all changes and stop tracking and save it as title.R1_clean.
13/20

Now you have: manuscript.R1_marked_up, manuscript.R1_clean, your response letter and any revised figures, supplement. You’re ready to head to scholarone to create your revision. Find submission and click 'Revision' 14/20

There are 2 boxes for responses. 'Response letter' and 'cover letter'. I cut & paste the cover letter part of my response letter (remove the point-by point below part) into 'cover letter' box.
Then cut & paste whole response letter in response letter box. Or can pdf it. 15/20

On the documents upload page, delete the old manuscript and figures. Don’t delete any COI forms you originally uploaded, you’ll still need them. Upload new manuscript_marked_up and manuscript_clean, all figures, supplemental files etc. Ensure they’re in the correct order. 16/20

Always review the pdf & html final files! Once you are certain you’ve done everything right, you WILL see a typo, or a page break gone wrong, or a table cut in half. Fix as many times as it needs fixing and uploading. This is painstaking since it’s so close to being done. 17/20

NOW…SUBMIT! Are you sure? Yes! It feels like the final leap, it takes a few hours at the journal for admin processing before going to editor. So if you’ve accidentally submitted your diary entry, email the journal asap and editorial staff will be happy to make that go away 18/20

SUBMITTED! A revised manuscript is worth its weight in gold. Thoughtfully addressed revisions bode well, and while you can’t control the outcome of peer review, you can control that you gave it your best shot. An organized systematic approach goes a long way. 19/20

Please add any other tips or advice below from your experience as an author or editor. And best of luck with your re-submissions.
May all your revisions be minor. Kerri
20/20 Fin