Step 7: Second Round Refereeing

Your paper is now sent the same three referees who reviewed it first time around. We do not switch referees between the first and second rounds. Attempts to do so in the past resulted in enormous confusion for authors, as readers who were unaware of the history of the paper often raised new sets of issues and problems, or asked authors to undo corrections they had made! Therefore we prefer to stick with readers who are familiar with your work. The same options are given to the referees as were previously offered: accept, minor revisions, major revisions, reject and resubmit, reject.

Referee comments are normally shorter the second time around, and can be more focused on specifics. Sometimes – on very rare occasions – referees can recommend rejection. In most cases, however, their message is fortunately more positive: straightforward acceptance or (more commonly) requests for a further round of very minor changes.

Referees are given 6 weeks to comment on the revised version.