Hi,
Being new to the publications arena, I am wondering if anyone can offer some views on my dilemma.
I finished my masters and submitted part of my work for publication. The paper was accepted subject to revisions. I completed the revisions as requested by reviewers and the paper was then accepted and will be published in next 4 months. I have since realised that the descriptive statistics which the reviewer sought and which I completed for the purposes of developing the paper are technically incorrect ( although the reviewer accepted them). My supervisor is a co author and has not picked up on the errors. I am unsure of the best way to approach this dilemma. I have already made the necessary changes in the manuscript and the overall results and discussion do not change.

I am in a dilemma as to what to do- withdraw it and resubmit with the amendments? ( presumably it would have to go to review again) How would I explain this in the least damaging way to the editor? Also my supervisor has given some input -
Any advice on how to approach this dilemma would be greatly appreciated and would ease my anxiety.

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Hi Cookies

Yes, you do need to resubmit with the correct data - it would damage your reputation, and your supervisor's, if you publish an article with incorrect stats which are then picked up by a reader. You don't want that! You say that your sup is also a co-author - if I was you I would draft an email for your sup to send to the editor with the revised article, explaining that on closer examination some of the results of the data need to be amended slightly (don't mention you made a mistake), but that they don't change the discussion. The editor may not send it out again to the reviewers - this doesn't sound like such a big deal, and if everything else is good, they might just accept your revised stats. It's not so bad!

Have you been given the final proof yet? If not,then they shouldn't have any problems amending the data. If not, better to withdraw and resubmit.

Hi MissSpacey and Sue,
Thank you both so much for your advice-it has not gone to proof yet so I will do as suggested. I definitely want to correct it and have peace of mind when it does get published.

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