Appeal process for Physical Review Letters

[sbhopala]

I am a co-author of a manuscript recently submitted to PRL. We received comments from 2 reviewers: 1 of them suggested revisions, while the other recommended the paper be rejected. The comments from the second reviewer were vague, as he completely misunderstood the paper. The editor rejected our paper based on the reviewers' comments. Now, we would like to appeal against this rejection. Can someone please detail the procedure for the same? Although I am able to find some information here (https://journals.aps.org/authors/editorial-appeal-procedures), it does not describe the procedure to initiate the appeal process.

 

[Astronuc]

I am a co-author of a manuscript recently submitted to PRL. We received comments from 2 reviewers: 1 of them suggested revisions, while the other recommended the paper be rejected. The comments from the second reviewer were vague, as he completely misunderstood the paper. The editor rejected our paper based on the reviewers' comments. Now, we would like to appeal against this rejection. Can someone please detail the procedure for the same? Although I am able to find some information here (https://journals.aps.org/authors/editorial-appeal-procedures), it does not describe the procedure to initiate the appeal process.

It seems one would appeal to the editor of the journal.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Honestly, I think you're setting yourself up for unnecessary grief.

1. If a referee totally misunderstood the paper, it needs to be improved so the same doesn't happen with the general readership. If 50% of the readers misunderstood, that's a problem.

2. There are plenty of other journals. The paper could be in print somewhere else by the time you and the APS get done arguing.

 

[sbhopala]

It seems one would appeal to the editor of the journal.

yes, I am aware of that. What i was not sure was if we had to email the editor/use the manuscript's submission system. Anyway, the customer support of APS journals just gave me an email id now - I need to use that for my appeal.

 

[sbhopala]

Honestly, I think you're setting yourself up for unnecessary grief.

1. If a referee totally misunderstood the paper, it needs to be improved so the same doesn't happen with the general readership. If 50% of the readers misunderstood, that's a problem.

2. There are plenty of other journals. The paper could be in print somewhere else by the time you and the APS get done arguing.

1. I understand. however, it's more than that. the referee did not even read the manuscript thoroughly and carefully. Some of his comments were already addressed in the text.
2. PRL has already given us the option of transferring to PR Applied/PR Research, although I do not know if the manuscript will undergo another round of revision. if our appeal to the PRL editor doesn't work out, we will transfer our manuscript to one of these journals.