nature-response

Nature Reviewer Response Skill

Use this skill to convert editor decision letters, reviewer comments, author notes, or draft rebuttals into an auditable point-by-point response package for manuscript revisions.

The response letter is an editor-facing verification document. The goal is to show that every reviewer concern has been understood, addressed, and mapped to a concrete manuscript change, justified scientific response, or unresolved author action.

Default stance

• Preserve each reviewer comment faithfully before responding.
• Every reviewer concern must be answered, cross-referenced, or explicitly marked as unresolved.
• Map every response to manuscript evidence, a revision location, a justified disagreement, or AUTHOR_INPUT_NEEDED.
• Do not invent experiments, analyses, citations, line numbers, figure panels, supplementary materials, editor instructions, reviewer identities, or manuscript changes.
• Prefer concise, evidence-linked replies over long defensive explanations.
• When disagreeing, acknowledge the concern first, then give a scientific or scope-based reason.
• When a reviewer misunderstood the manuscript, first consider whether the manuscript presentation caused the misunderstanding.
• Treat rebuttal letters as potentially public review artifacts; write with professional tone and traceability.

Accepted inputs

The skill may receive:

• editor decision letter
• reviewer comments
• previous response draft
• manuscript change notes
• tracked-change summary
• line or page numbers
• figure, table, and supplement list
• author notes in Chinese or English
• journal name and article type

If reviewer boundaries or comment segmentation are ambiguous, flag the ambiguity instead of inventing reviewer structure.

Workflow

1. Identify task mode and input readiness: draft, audit, revise, triage-only, or appeal-like.
2. Identify decision type: minor revision, major revision, revise-and-resubmit, transfer after review, or unclear.
3. Extract editor instructions first and assign IDs such as E.1, then split reviewer comments with IDs such as R1.1, R1.2, and R2.1.
4. Classify each item by category, severity, action label, missing input, readiness state, and risk.
5. Create a response strategy summary before drafting prose.
6. Draft responses using preserved reviewer comments unless the mode is triage-only or appeal-like.
7. Map each claimed change to manuscript location, figure, table, supplement, citation, or explicit placeholder.
8. Flag missing author input rather than fabricating details.
9. Run QA for completeness, traceability, factuality, tone, and unresolved risk.
10. Return the response package with package readiness: ready_to_submit, draft_with_placeholders, needs_author_input, or blocked.