Free tool, writing and publishing
Reviewer comment explainer
One reviewer comment in plain English, with steps for your reply.
Put one reviewer comment in the box and you get back the meaning in easy English, how heavy the comment is and some steps for your reply.
Reviewers mostly write in two or three words only. Take a line like “The authors should address endogeneity”. For one paper it means a week of fresh analysis, for another paper one honest paragraph is sufficient. If English is not your first language, a short line from a reviewer can look like he is angry with you. Mostly he was just busy that day. The opposite also happens. A comment looks small, and later you find the reviewer is doubting the base of your study. The tool takes one comment at a time and says what type of work it is asking from you.
The AI check is switched off for now. You can call or WhatsApp us instead, and we’ll go through it with you.
Not sure the answer fits your study? WhatsApp us or call, and we’ll look at it with you.
How the tool works
Nothing is worked out on your computer. The comment goes to our server first and our server passes it to OpenAI. Their language model reads it along with a set of instructions we have written and fixed. What comes back to you has four parts.
- What the reviewer is asking, written the way you would explain it to a junior in the lab.
- How serious the comment is. Wording issues, layout issues and a missing citation come under minor. A reviewer asking you to clarify something gets moderate from the tool, and one small extra analysis is also moderate only. Major is when he is not convinced by your design or your data, or he doubts the main claim of the paper itself.
- What kind of work it needs. Many times you only have to change some lines in the text. Other times it is a new analysis. Rarely the reviewer wants more data. And in some cases the correct thing is to politely disagree and show your evidence.
- Two to four steps you can follow to get the reply ready.
The model has strict instruction from us that it should not write your reply, not even a single line. Before the answer reaches you our server checks its format, and if the text is not research writing the server rejects it. The box stops at 1,200 characters. Paste comments one by one. Adding one line on your study helps the model a lot. Something like “survey of 300 nurses, analysed with regression” is enough.
We are not saving the comment you paste. The answer is stored for a short while in encrypted form. The key for that is made from your own text, and the answer gets deleted after the following day. Free checks are limited to a few per visitor each day, and you can see the balance in the line under the button. Details are in our privacy policy.
After all the comments are clear to you, you can move to our reviewer response builder. There each comment becomes a numbered row in a table, and you fill your response in one column and the change you did in the paper in the other.
Questions scholars ask
The comment sounds rude. Is the reviewer rejecting my paper?
Not necessarily. Most reviewers type in a hurry and their style is blunt. Look at the editor’s decision, minor revision or major revision, to know your position. In your reply just deal with what he is asking for and don’t react to the tone.
What if I don’t agree with the reviewer?
You are allowed to stay with your approach as long as you give reasons. Start by thanking the reviewer. After that explain about your choice, supported by a citation or a figure. It is good to add one sentence in the paper also, so that the next reader won’t ask the same question. Leaving the comment unanswered is the worst option, editors don’t like that at all.
The comment asks for more data. Do I have to collect it?
Not every time. Sometimes a paragraph on limitations is the honest answer. Or you can run one more analysis on data already in your hand. If new data is really needed, write to the editor saying how much time you will need, and request the extension well before the deadline comes.
Is the comment I paste stored?
No. We don’t keep any copy of your comment. It goes to OpenAI for preparing the explanation, and there OpenAI’s own terms apply. Only the explanation stays with us, encrypted, till the end of the next day, and after that it is deleted.
Why did I get a message instead of an explanation?
In most cases the comment was too short or too long, or the text was not research writing at all. Copying the whole journal email into the box will not work, take out just the one comment you need. Once in a while the model fails to answer properly. Just try again, a failed try is not counted in your free checks.
Stuck on a chapter? Talk it through with us.
Call or WhatsApp, say where you are in your thesis, and we’ll tell you plainly what kind of help makes sense, if any.