Rebuttal Template Guide

Rebuttal Template Guide

Rebuttal work should turn reviewer comments into a calm, evidence-backed response plan. The goal is not to argue harder; it is to make the revision path inspectable.

Rebuttal Matrix

Recommended columns:

Column	Purpose
Reviewer	Reviewer id or source
Comment	Original comment, kept verbatim when possible
Issue type	Missing evidence, unclear writing, method concern, experiment request, scope mismatch
Severity	Blocking, major, minor, clarification
Response stance	Agree, partially agree, clarify, respectfully disagree
Evidence	Paper, experiment, table, ablation, proof, or limitation statement
Revision action	Concrete manuscript change
Risk	What remains uncertain

Response Template

Thank you for pointing this out. We agree that [issue] was not sufficiently clear in the original version.

Evidence or clarification:
[one or two evidence-backed sentences]

Revision:
We will revise [section/table/figure] to [specific action].

For partial disagreement:

We agree with the concern about [valid part]. Our current evidence suggests [qualified claim], but we should not state [overstrong claim]. We will revise the text to make this boundary explicit.

Tone Rules

• Address the strongest version of the reviewer concern.
• Do not blame reviewers for misunderstanding.
• Do not promise experiments that cannot be completed.
• Do not convert expected results into completed results.
• If evidence is missing, say what can be revised now and what remains future work.

Before Final Submission

Check every rebuttal promise against the manuscript revision. If the response says a table, experiment, limitation, or citation was added, verify it appears in the revised file.

中文说明

Rebuttal 的目标不是“怼回去”，而是把审稿意见转成冷静、可验证、可执行的修改计划。

推荐用 rebuttal matrix 管理：

字段	用途
Reviewer	审稿人编号或来源。
Comment	尽量保留原始意见。
Issue type	缺证据、表达不清、方法质疑、实验请求、scope 不匹配等。
Severity	Blocking、major、minor 或 clarification。
Response stance	Agree、partially agree、clarify、respectfully disagree。
Evidence	论文、实验、表格、消融、证明或 limitation。
Revision action	具体修改哪个 section、table、figure 或 paragraph。
Risk	还有什么不确定或无法承诺。

语气规则：

• 先承认合理部分；
• 不指责 reviewer 没看懂；
• 不承诺做不了的实验；
• 未完成实验不能写成 completed result；
• 每个 rebuttal promise 都要能在修改稿里找到对应证据。