Responding to reviewers’ comments: tips on handling challenging comments

The goal of every author is to have their research work published. In the process of publishing a peer-reviewed article, authors are often required to revise their original manuscript based on the comments from the reviewers. Although some of these comments are straightforward and concise, others are conflicting and unclear and, as such, authors may find it challenging to plan and carry out the revision as well as compose the accompanying response letter. In this article I outline eight challenges in handling reviewers’ comments that may be useful for novice authors. In general, authors will always benefit from adopting a positive attitude towards reviewers’ comments and make the effort to improve their manuscript. Graphical abstract