Author Revision Guidelines

Authors whose manuscripts receive a Revisions Required decision must carefully address the editor's and reviewers' comments and submit two separate files through the journal's online submission system.

1. Required Revision Files

File 1: Clean Revision

The Clean Revision is the complete revised manuscript in which all approved changes have been incorporated.

• Revise the manuscript in response to the editor and all reviewers.
• Accept or remove all tracked changes before submission.
• Delete all comments, highlights, notes, and internal instructions.
• Ensure that the document contains no hidden markup or unresolved comments.
• Follow the journal's current structure, formatting, citation, and reference requirements.
• Remove author names, affiliations, acknowledgements, and other identifying information if the manuscript is still undergoing anonymous review.

File name:
[Manuscript ID]_Clean_Revision.docx

File 2: Response to Reviewers

The Response to Reviewers file must present a complete, point-by-point response to every comment made by the editor and each reviewer.

• Use the official Response to Reviewers template provided by the journal.
• Identify the source of each comment using the designation provided by the journal, such as Editor A, Editor B, Reviewer A, Reviewer B, or Reviewer C.
• Copy each editor or reviewer comment in full.
• Respond to each comment separately and specifically.
• Explain the revision made in response to each comment.
• Indicate the relevant line number or line-number range in the Clean Revision.
• If a recommendation is not adopted, provide a clear, respectful, and academically or methodologically justified explanation.
• Do not identify or speculate about the identity of any reviewer.

File name:
[Manuscript ID]_Response_to_Reviewers.docx

Download the Response to Reviewers Template

2. How to Prepare the Revision

1. Read the editorial decision letter and all review reports in full.
2. Enter each comment from the editor and reviewers in the Response to Reviewers template.
3. Revise the manuscript and record the relevant line number or line-number range for every change.
4. Check that every response corresponds to an actual change in the Clean Revision.
5. Recheck the argument, methods, results, discussion, language, tables, figures, citations, references, and supplementary materials.
6. Upload both required files through the journal's online submission system before the revision deadline stated in the editorial decision.

3. Final Submission Checklist

• The Clean Revision contains no tracked changes, comments, highlights, or unresolved markup.
• All comments from the editor and reviewers have been answered individually.
• The editor or reviewer identity code is provided for every comment.
• Every response clearly explains the revision made.
• The relevant line number or line-number range is provided for every revision.
• The Response to Reviewers is fully consistent with the Clean Revision.
• All in-text citations are included in the reference list and vice versa.
• Tables, figures, appendices, and supplementary files have been checked.
• Both files follow the required naming format.
• Both files have been uploaded before the revision deadline.

Editorial notice: The editorial team may return a revision that is incomplete, cannot be verified against the response document, or fails to address all editor and reviewer comments. Submission of a revised manuscript does not guarantee acceptance. The revision may be sent for further editorial assessment or another round of peer review.

Submit the revised files through the Religious journal submission system .