Revision of manuscripts for scholarly publication

Research shows that only 5% to 10% of manuscripts submitted to scholarly journals are accepted upon submission; the remainder must be revised before they are suitable for publication. Research also shows that authors who perform requested revisions greatly improve their chances of being published. In fact, a properly revised manuscript is almost guaranteed eventual publication at many journals. Despite these encouraging statistics, a significant number of authors choose to withdraw their manuscripts rather than perform revisions. This article examines the peer-review process, looks at common reasons why revisions are requested by reviewers and presents advice to authors on how to revise and resubmit their manuscripts for publication.