As an author you can use your author homepage to reupload a revised manuscript based on comments made by the editor and reviewers. In addition to the revised manuscript, you must also provide a numbered point-by-point response to the reviewer's comments, as well as the title, abstract, and keywords for the manuscript.
This article contains the following:
- How to prepare your revised manuscript and respond to editor/reviewer comments.
- How to upload your revised manuscript.
- How to determine the deadline for your revised manuscript/response (and what to do if the deadline has passed).
- What to do if you did not receive the email with editor/reviewer comments.
1. Prepare Your Manuscript
Before you resubmit, make sure you have revised your manuscript based on the comments made by all peer reviewers and the editor. Consider the following important points when revising and resubmitting your manuscript:
- Prepare your manuscript and response offline using a text editor (such as Word). Do not use any text formatting.
- Prepare a "point-by-point" response to all the editor and reviewer concerns/queries raised.
- Revise the manuscript to address the issues raised by reviewers. See the next section for additional guidance.
- Please upload a revised version with tracked changes (or highlighted sections of text where changes were made) as a supplementary file, in addition to providing a clean version under "Revised Ms". This can be uploaded as a supplementary file along with the clean version of the manuscript (e.g., in the section entitled "Other Files (Not for Publication)".
Supplying all items above during the author revision stage of manuscript review facilitates the review process. Absence of any one of these items may delay the process.
2. Prepare Response to the Reviewers and Editor
With your revised manuscript you are required to submit a numbered "point-by-point" response to all the editor and reviewer concerns/queries raised.
While a response is required for each point, if the authors disagree with a reviewer comment, the authors may choose not to revise the manuscript in response to a specific comment. However, it is expected that the authors should provide an appropriate explanation of their disagreement with the reviewer and decision not to make revisions for that particular comment. Consider that the editor makes the final decision, not the reviewers.
Format a Response
Number your responses and make sure each response is associated with a specific reviewer.
For example, if you have 3 items mentioned by reviewer "A", mark your responses with A1, A2, and A3.
In each item, first quote the editor/reviewer, then write a response. Please indicate that it is a response by beginning with the text: "RESPONSE: ...".
Unable to Address Reviewer Comments
If you are unable or unwilling to address any of the comments, please state the reason why in your point-by-point response to the comments (i.e., "Change was not made because..."). If the reviewer and author differ, the editor determines the next step and final decision.
3. Resubmit (Upload) a Revised Manuscript
Once you have revised your manuscript and prepared your response to the reviewer comments, you can now resubmit the revised manuscript.
To resubmit a revised manuscript:
- Navigate to your author homepage.
- Select awaiting author revision in the Status column for the manuscript you are resubmitting.
- Upload all new supplementary material such as figures, appendices, etc. This is only required if the supplementary files have changed since they were last uploaded.
Note: We recommend that you also upload a version of the manuscript with tracked changes turned on as a supplementary file. -
In the section labeled 4. UPLOAD MANUSCRIPT, upload your clean (no tracked changes) revised manuscript.
Please make sure the file is either a .doc or .docx Word file. We cannot accept PDF, LaTeX, or PAGES files.
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Copy & paste your numbered point-by-point response to editorial and reviewer comments into the box labeled Respond to editorial and peer review comments.
- Insert your title, abstract, and keywords based on editor feedback.
- Once you are finished, select Submit.
After submitting your revision, please make sure we received it by looking for a confirmation email and verifying that the status has changed from "Awaiting revision" to "In review" on your author homepage.
You can learn more at: Did you receive our manuscript or manuscript revision?
Contact Editor with No Manuscript
It is possible to only send a message to the editor without uploading a new manuscript.
To do so, navigate to the page where you upload the manuscript and scroll down to 5. CONTACT EDITOR (see also I would like to send a message to the editor about my paper (already submitted).)
Once there, select Contact Editor to send a message to the editor for your manuscript.
Please do not send another message if you just uploaded a manuscript that included a message for the editor.
4. Transfer Options
Reviewers or editors may have suggested other journals from the JMIR journal portfolio for which the paper is a better fit. Please indicate a ranking of these journals by order of preference, for a potential transfer if the paper is rejected. Note that the editor may reject the paper even if reviews are positive if no journal preferences are entered, if it is felt that the paper is out of scope or not strong enough for the journal it was submitted to. See also Why has my article been transferred to another journal (or a transfer has been suggested), and what are my options? for more information on transfers.
5. Revision Deadline
There is a deadline to submit the manuscript revision. The length of the deadline depends on the reviewer decision for the manuscript:
- Decision B= 2 week deadline
- Decision C or D = 8 week deadline
Missed Deadline
It is still technically possible to submit your revision after the deadline. If the deadline is missed and we don't hear from you at all, then we may at some point remove the manuscript from the submission queue. In this case the manuscript won't be listed under "Active" anymore, and will have been moved to "Archive". It is still possible to reinstate the manuscript as Active for a nominal Manuscript Reinstatement Fee.
Deadline Extension
If you believe you will be unable to make the deadline, or have missed the deadline, please contact us for a deadline extension. For the process to request a deadline extension see I am an author working on my revision in response to the reviewers and I would like an extension for submitting my revised manuscript and responses to reviewers.
6. Did Not Receive Editorial/Peer Review Email
If you did not receive an email with editorial/peer-review comments, please check your spam filter for the email.
You can also review the editor/author correspondence online on your author homepage.
To review the editor/author correspondence:
- Navigate to your author homepage.
- Select the Status link for your paper.
- Select Editor/Author Email Record at the bottom of the review tab, (see also I am an author - where can I find the past reviewer comments?).
See also:
- Did you receive our manuscript or manuscript revision?
- What happens after I submitted a revised version and my responses to reviewer comments?
- What is the status of my submission?
- I can't find my submitted manuscript?
- We have submitted a revised manuscript. However, we have not received a confirmation that the manuscript was received.
- I am an author working on my revision in response to the reviewers and I would like an extension for submitting my revised manuscript and responses to reviewers.
- I am an author - where can I find the past reviewer comments?
- As a reviewer, where do I find other reviewer comments and the authors' responses to the previous reviewer comments?