======= Date Modified 24 49 2009 11:49:16 =======
Hi there..

am trying to resubmit an article to a journal. The reviewer(s) pointed out several issues. While changing the manuscript in accordance to their suggestions, I found some further convoluted sentences/wording that I'd like to change too, although these changes weren't demanded by the reviewer(s).

Is this acceptable? I thought I include a line in the response letter (after pointing out in detail how I implemented the changes they suggested) that I made some additional minor changes which did not affect the argument, structure or presentation of the article.

What do you think?

I just rewrote an article (and it got accepted). I changed pretty much everything, including the title. I did tell them I was going to make major changes to the argument first, however, as well as the minor changes they wanted.

TBH, if I was you I would go ahead with the additional minor changes and not even tell them. I doubt they will even notice and, if they do, they will look kind of weird emailing you back to say "WTF is going on with line 3 on page 14 where you have corrected a split infinitive" or whatever. The only thing I would be careful of, though, is polishing this indefinitely rather than just sending it back and getting rid. It might just be me, but I have a tendency to fiddle about making changes that aren't necessarily improvements.

Hey Alicepalace!

thanks for your comment!

I definitely have the same problem of wasting loads of time on fiddling with some details of the wording and I'm certainly doubtful that in the end this actually necessarily improves the outcome.. I somehow wish they'd given my work a bit more substantial/thorough criticism, in a way I feel there's something "missing" in the article but I'm rather hesistant to go too far with my revision since they seemed generally happy with it (and I would have needed more substantial criticism as guidance for any improvement).

Mhm. I guess you're right that it possibly doesn't require special mentioning if I did some more minor changes etc.

If you don't mind me asking, how did you explain to them that you wanted to change more than they asked? Which field are you in?

My field is English Studies. I had a fairly casual email exchange with the editor of the journal, and he asked me to give a date when I would have finished the alterations and I replied giving a date and said then that there were some other, wider issues that I wanted to address in my rewrite. I didn't really phrase it as an "is this OK?" more a "letting you know".

Cheers, Alice, helpful to know that such things seem possible.

Congrats on your accepted article!