How to Respond to an Unfair Reviewer (the Reviewer 2 Problem)
The reviewer is wrong, rude, or asking for the opposite of what Reviewer 1 wanted. Your instinct is to fight back in the response letter. That instinct is the trap, because the editor reads your judgment as closely as your science.
While you wait
Waiting on a decision? Get your next move ready.
The wait is out of your hands; the next move isn't. Scan your next manuscript free, or run this paper through the scan to see what reviewers typically push back on, so the revision response is ready when the decision lands.
How to use this page well
These pages work best when they behave like tools, not essays. Use the quick structure first, then apply it to the exact journal and manuscript situation.
Question | What to do |
|---|---|
Use this page for | Building a point-by-point response that is easy for reviewers and editors to trust. |
Start with | State the reviewer concern clearly, then pair each response with the exact evidence or revision. |
Common mistake | Sounding defensive or abstract instead of specific about what changed. |
Best next step | Turn the response into a visible checklist or matrix before you finalize the letter. |
Quick answer: How to respond to an unfair reviewer, in one line: answer the substance and let the tone go. Address every technical point on its merits, thank the reviewer for the fair ones, and where a comment is wrong or out of scope, explain why with evidence rather than indignation. The single most common way authors lose a winnable paper is by writing a response letter that argues with the reviewer's manner instead of the reviewer's points.
The editor is reading your judgment as closely as your data. A calm, complete reply to a hostile review is itself the strongest argument you can make.
Why fighting back backfires
The mechanism here repays a moment of thought, because the whole strategy hangs on it. The handling editor, not the reviewer, decides your paper. The reviewer advises. So when you write a defensive, sarcastic, or wounded response, the audience that matters is not the reviewer you are angry at. It is the editor, who is now watching how you behave under pressure and quietly deciding whether you are someone they want to keep working with through a revision.
A reviewer being unfair is a problem you can fix with evidence. You looking unable to take criticism is a problem the editor cannot un-see. One of those is recoverable in a single reply. The other colors every decision that follows.
So the move is almost never to win the argument with the reviewer. It is to make the editor's job easy.
The three common patterns of a hard review
This is the part you learn from reading a lot of these. In our pre-submission review work with manuscripts, the reviews that feel unfair almost always fall into one of three shapes, and each is a specific failure pattern that calls for a different response.
The first is the wrong reviewer. The comment is confidently stated and factually incorrect, or it asks about something the paper already answers. What we see is that this usually means the manuscript itself was unclear at that point, not that the reviewer is a fool. The response is to correct the record politely, point to where the paper addresses it, and, importantly, revise that passage so the next reader does not stumble the same way.
The second is the scope creep. The reviewer asks for a new experiment, a new cohort, or a reframing that would be a different paper. Here you may decline, but the decline has to be reasoned: explain why the request is outside the scope of the current study, offer what you can do instead, and let the editor weigh it. In practice it means naming the boundary rather than quietly ignoring the ask.
The third is the contradiction. Reviewer 1 wants the discussion shorter and Reviewer 2 wants it longer. You cannot satisfy both, and trying produces a mangled paper that pleases no one. Choose the change that serves the paper, do it, explain your reasoning to each, and hand the conflict to the editor to adjudicate. That is their job, and they would rather rule on it than watch you guess.
None of these three is won by matching the reviewer's tone. All three are won by being the calmest, clearest person in the exchange.
How to write the reply
The response document is a technical argument map, not a thank-you note and not a rebuttal in the legal sense. Structure beats eloquence.
Situation | What to write | What to avoid |
|---|---|---|
Comment is fair | Thank them, describe the exact change, cite the line | Over-apologizing or padding |
Comment is wrong | Correct it with evidence, then fix the unclear passage | "The reviewer is mistaken" with no fix |
Request is out of scope | Decline with a reason, offer an alternative | Silent non-compliance |
Reviewers contradict | Pick one, justify it, escalate to the editor | Trying to satisfy both |
Review is hostile | Answer the substance, ignore the tone | Sarcasm, wounded language, complaint about the person |
Copy every comment into the document verbatim, answer each directly underneath it, and link every response to a concrete change, a new analysis, or a reasoned explanation. Editors want traceability. They are checking that you understood each critique and acted proportionately, and a clean, numbered document makes that easy to see.
Weak reply versus strong reply
The gap between a response that helps and one that hurts is usually not the science, it is the framing of the same point. Here is the same situation handled two ways, so you can hear the difference.
The reviewer's comment | Weak reply | Strong reply |
|---|---|---|
Misreads a result as unsupported | "The reviewer is mistaken." | "This result is in Table 3; we have added a sentence pointing to it." |
Demands an out-of-scope experiment | Silence, or you attempt it badly | "That is a separate study; here is the analysis we can add instead." |
Contradicts the other reviewer | You try to satisfy both | "The two reviews conflict here; we chose X for this reason and defer to the editor." |
Is simply rude | A wounded or sarcastic rebuttal | A plain, complete answer to the technical point, tone unremarked |
Manusights guidance on response-document framing.
Notice that the strong replies are not longer or more deferential. They are more specific, they end in a concrete change or a clear reason, and they never characterize the reviewer. That is the whole move, repeated down the document.
What the editor actually sees
It helps to picture the editor reading your response, because they are the real audience and their read is quick. They open the response document beside the reviews and scan for two things: did the author engage with each point, and did they behave. A numbered document where every comment is quoted and answered directly underneath makes the first easy to confirm. A calm tone throughout makes the second a non-issue. An editor who finds both is inclined to move the paper forward, because you have made their decision defensible.
The failure they are watching for is the opposite: a response that skips the hard comments, argues tone instead of substance, or leaves them unable to tell whether a critique was addressed. That editor now has to do your work to adjudicate, and a paper that makes the editor work is a paper it is easier to decline. So the discipline is not about being meek. It is about making the response so clear and so complete that the editor never has to wonder what you did or whether you were reasonable. The reviewer you are angry at is not the reader who matters. The editor deciding your paper is.
Readiness check
While you wait, scan your next manuscript.
The scan takes about 1-2 minutes. Use the result to decide whether to revise before the decision comes back.
When to bring in the editor, and when not to
Use these two cuts to decide.
Go to the handling editor if: two reviews genuinely conflict and you need a ruling; a review is factually wrong in a way that would force a pointless experiment; the review shows the reviewer did not read the paper; or a comment strays into inappropriate territory. State the concern about the review, specifically and without heat, and ask how they would like you to proceed.
Handle it yourself if: the review is merely blunt or unenthusiastic; the requests are in scope even if annoying; or you disagree on interpretation but the reviewer's read is defensible. Escalating a survivable review reads as thin skin, and editors notice that too.
The one move that is never right is answering a rude review in kind. It feels satisfying for a paragraph and costs you the editor for the rest of the process.
What we see across manuscripts
Clearing a hostile review is rarely about the cleverest rebuttal. It is about staying technical, fixing whatever the confusion exposed, and leaving the editor an easy decision. Reach for this when a review lands that feels unfair and you are deciding how to reply, ideally before you submit the revision. The editorial-practice guidance we reviewed for this reading is in the sources below. If you want a second read of your response letter before it goes back, our pre-submission review checks whether each reply actually answers its comment and whether the tone will help or hurt you with the editor.
Your response-letter checklist
Before the revision goes back, confirm each of these:
- Every reviewer comment is copied into the document verbatim, with your reply directly beneath it.
- Each reply ends in a concrete change, a new analysis, or a clearly reasoned decline, never a bare assertion.
- Nowhere in the document do you characterise the reviewer, only the review.
- Any out-of-scope request is declined with a stated reason and, where you can, an alternative you are willing to offer.
- Any genuine contradiction between two reviews is named, resolved one way, and handed to the editor to adjudicate.
- The whole thing reads as calm to a stranger, because a skeptical editor is the reader who actually matters.
If a reply fails one of these, it is usually the tone, not the science. Fix the tone and the science speaks for itself.
Frequently asked questions
Answer the substance calmly and completely, and let the tone go. Address every technical point on its merits, thank the reviewer for the useful ones, and where a comment is wrong or out of scope, explain why with evidence instead of indignation. The editor is reading your professionalism as closely as your data, so a measured reply to a rude review is itself an argument in your favor.
Do not try to satisfy both. Pick the change that best serves the paper, make it, and explain your reasoning to each reviewer in the response document. Then flag the conflict to the handling editor directly and ask for guidance. Editors expect to adjudicate contradictions; leaving it unresolved and hoping is what goes wrong.
Yes, if the request is out of scope, technically inappropriate, or impossible within a proportionate revision. Refusal is fine; silent refusal is not. State plainly that you did not make the change, give the reason, support it, and offer an alternative if one exists. A reasoned decline reads as judgment; ignoring a request reads as evasion.
Complain about the review, never the reviewer. If a review is factually wrong, internally contradictory, or clearly did not engage with the paper, say so specifically and unemotionally to the handling editor and ask how they would like you to proceed. Editors take a calm, evidenced concern seriously and dismiss a personal grievance.
Factual, appreciative, and non-defensive, even when the review was not. Thank reviewers for specific points, avoid sarcasm and wounded language, and write as though a skeptical editor is judging both your science and your character, because one is.
Sources
- COPE, guidance on peer review and author conduct: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/guideline/ethical-guidelines-peer-reviewers
- Committee on Publication Ethics, responding to reviewers: https://publicationethics.org/guidance/flowchart/all-flowcharts
- Sense about Science, peer review and the author's role: https://senseaboutscience.org/activities/peer-review-the-nuts-and-bolts/
Final step
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