Invited Revisions

If you are resubmitting a manuscript that received a revision or risky revision decision, review the instructions on this page carefully prior to submitting your revised manuscript to ensure adherence to all requirements.

Policies and requirements may change; authors of revisions must adhere to the guidelines effective at the time of resubmission. Staff will review your submission for adherence to all requirements and will return incomplete submissions until all required information has been provided.

Note: The current editor team will handle revisions until March 31, 2025. All revisions (including conditional acceptances) submitted on or after April 1, 2025 will be assigned to a new editor.

Correspondence

Editors cannot discuss submissions or the review process directly with authors (by phone, video, in person, etc.).

Authors must designate a corresponding author. The designated corresponding author should communicate with the editorial office (not the editor in chief or handling editor) on behalf of all authors and is expected to coordinate communications with co-authors.

General Guidance for Revisions

If something in the editor’s decision letter or the review materials is unclear or inconsistent, authors may request clarification before revising their manuscript, but we do not provide or approve formal revision plans.

Please review the following general guidance for revisions (including conditional acceptances):

  • Your revised manuscript must adhere to our 60-page limit
  • If the decision letter states that your revised manuscript should comprise fewer than 60 pages, you must adhere to the page limit specified in the decision letter
  • Any changes in authorship (addition, removal, or reordering of authors) should be noted in the confidential cover letter to the editor
  • Do not include a consumer relevance and contribution statement when submitting a revision
  • The author note and the data collection statement must be provided in the system with each revision (do not include these items in the manuscript file during the review process)

Also review the manuscript preparation guidelines and our updated policies on research ethics, transparency, and open science research ethics policies. Note the following requirements at resubmission:

If you wish to share a link to your data files and study materials with reviewers (this is entirely optional), you may also include it in your manuscript or web appendix (ensure it is completely anonymized).

Revision Deadlines

Manuscripts offered revision after January 1, 2021 must be resubmitted within one year.

JCR strives to ensure a timely and fair review process for the benefit of all stakeholders. A timely review process is good for authors seeking to bring their findings to the field as quickly as possible. It is good for reviewers who are able to stay current with the manuscript and changes that occurred in each round. And it is very important for the journal to publish findings while they are their most novel and impactful.

We understand that weekends or holidays can delay resubmission. If your due date falls on a weekend or personal holiday and you are unable to complete your resubmission on that date, contact the editorial office (not the editor in chief or handling editor) and we will extend the deadline to your next working day.

Other exceptions may be made based on the specific circumstances of the author team. To request an extension, contact the editorial office (not the editor in chief or handling editor) prior to the deadline for resubmission.

We strive to maintain continuity by assigning the same AE and reviewers to invited revisions even if the editor changes (generally due to an editor’s term ending). However, the likelihood of maintaining the same review team decreases as the time to resubmission increases.

Authors requesting an extension should take into consideration the possibility that members of the review team may change.

Revision Notes

When submitting an invited revision, you must also submit revision notes (unless otherwise indicated in the editor’s decision letter).

Your revision notes should provide an overview of how you addressed the broad issues and concerns summarized in the editor’s decision letter and the AE report.

You may provide very brief separate comments to individual reviewers, but this is not necessary; everything can go into the overview focused on the decision letter and the AE report.

The AE’s role is to integrate and prioritize reviewer concerns, and assigning an AE to each manuscript ensures that authors are not pulled in multiple directions to please a disparate set of reviewers.

Note:

  • Keep your revision notes brief (a maximum of 15 pages) and avoid repetition
  • If the decision letter states that your revision notes should comprise fewer than 15 pages, you must adhere to the page limit specified in the decision letter
  • The page limit applies to the entire document
  • We cannot make exceptions to the page limit
  • Your revision notes may be single spaced but must otherwise follow our manuscript formatting guidelines
  • Ensure your revision notes are completely anonymized (do not include author names or other identifying information; revision notes are shared with the entire review team)
  • Do not respond or refer to trainee reviews
  • Do not refer to page numbers in the manuscript when discussing changes to your manuscript (page numbers may change after file conversion)
  • Ensure all comments among authors have been removed, all tracked changes have been accepted or rejected, and “track changes” has been turned off
Submitting an Invited Revision

Only the submitting author from the previous round can create and submit a revision. If you need to designate a different submitting author, contact the editorial office.

To submit an invited revision (including conditional acceptances):

  • Log in to your author account and click “create a revision” in the “Manuscripts Awaiting Revision” queue
  • Do not create a new submission with a new manuscript ID (the new submission will be unsubmitted and staff cannot transfer the information over to the revision)
  • Upload your revision notes in Step 3
  • If you would like to provide confidential comments to the editor and AE, you may enter a separate confidential cover letter to the editor and AE later in Step 6
  • Do not upload your revision notes or cover letter in Step 1 (skip this step entirely)