116 PRS Proofreading and Editing Service PhD Experts • All Academic Areas • Fast Turnaround • High Quality problems with the methodology of a study, the theories adopted, the data or analysis presented and/or the argument constructed by an author. It can take a careful and open-minded review of your own paper and research in relation to the critical comments you’ve received – a thorough critical self-assessment, as it were – to decide exactly how to interpret such criticism. Are the problems raised evidence that the editor’s perspective is simply far removed from your own and the journal just not the right fit? Or are they valid concerns about real shortcomings or flaws in your research that taken constructively could facilitate the improvement of your article in fundamental ways? If the first is the case, it would probably be best to submit your paper to a different journal: if you believe your research to be valid and valuable, it’s your responsibility to publish it despite disagreement. If the second is the case, then your paper almost certainly needs revision and it might be unethical to submit it to another journal without resolving the problems identified in the letter you’ve received. Each case is unique, of course, and you will have to decide for yourself how best to proceed, ideally with some advice from one or more specialists in your field. Academic advisors and supervisors can be particularly helpful, and so can fellow students and colleagues, but ultimately the sorts of changes needed to resolve problems with methods, data and argument tend to be ones that only the author can choose and make. Sometimes it’s a matter of explaining more carefully key issues such as the relationships and controls considered in your study, or presenting more clearly the evidence gleaned from your research, or stating more explicitly the limitations and shortcomings of your approaches and data. In other instances you may need to clarify what is innovative and significant about your research to justify your methods and results: often ideas and approaches that move beyond conventional wisdom need to be PARt III: commUnIcAtIng wItH JoURnAl edItoRs: sUBmIssIon, AccePtAnce, RevIsIon And ReJectIon