2016 Annual Conference

The purpose of this session is to have participants receive strategies and practice how to respond to journal manuscript reviewers' comments. Participants will view manuscript reviewer forms, discuss the resubmission process, analyze "best practices" for responding to reviewers' comments, view real examples of authors' responses and practice responding to comments.

The target audience includes new professors, graduate students and other participants interested in how to appropriately respond to journal manuscript reviewer comments to increase their chances of being published. This session complements the sessions held by the editors of Adult Learning, Adult Education Quarterly, and the Journal of Transformative Education who discuss publication issues in general. Those who want to engage in experiential learning are also welcome as participants will be able to engage in Kolb's (1984) process of experiential learning.

A strong publication record is necessary for tenure in many academic institutions. A strong publication record is not only necessary for tenure. In addition, graduate students publications may soon be tied to university funding (Dirani, personal communication, April 15, 2016). Given these increasingly high stakes tied to publication records, it is important to understand how best to respond to reviewer comments in order to increase the chance of publication. Authors' failure to revise and resubmit after peer review is a major reason why articles are not published (Pierson, 2004). Some editors suggest that revision and resubmission increases the chances of acceptance from to 80% (Romero, 2002, paragraph 12). Knowing how to respond to reviewer comments is integral to getting published.
This session will be innovative because learning will be experiential and involves Kolb's (1984) steps including reflecting on a concrete experience and putting ideas into practice. I will disperse a sheet with tips on responding to reviewers. Participants will see real manuscript reviewer forms, letters received from journal editors, and letters addressing reviewers' concerns. They will also be able to practice responding to reviewer comments. This session is timely because publishing is important to the field.