Science 311 – Justification Letter

Goals

Ensure that your paper has been thoroughly revised

Justify choices made in preparation of final draft

Before a journal article can be published, it is reviewed by at least two of the author’s peers. The author receives the reviewer comments and makes changes to their manuscript accordingly. When the final draft is submitted, the author must provide a covering letter that addresses the reviewer’s concerns as to why those changes were or were not made.

Within the American Chemical Society author guidelines:

The Editors’ acceptance of a manuscript for publication is contingent on the author’s submitting, within a reasonable time, a revised manuscript appropriately addressing reviewer and Editor concerns.

Changes to the manuscript, whether or not made in response to those comments, should be described in a cover letter.

Within the Geological Society of America (Geology) author guidelines:

Nearly all manuscripts are returned to the author with suggestions for revision, condensation, or final polish. If the revised manuscript and the author's cover letter show that the author has conscientiously considered the reviewers' suggestions, the manuscript may be accepted directly

Instructions

You will write a justification letter to your TA (your reviewer) to address the comments and suggestions that were provided for the improvement of your paper. Although you are not required to make all the changes suggested, you must show that you considered these comments in preparation of the final draft.

This will ensure that you have revised your paper completely. It will also ensure that you have considered why these comments were made, and how such changes impact the effectiveness of your paper.

After completing revisions to your paper, compose an email justification letter to your TA according to the guidelines above.

Attach your final draft to the email in .pdf format.

Send the email to your TA by noon on March 4, 2008 (same date the final draft is due).

The Justification Letter score will be converted to a score out of 2. You will also receive a score out of 2 for your Checklist. These two scores out of 2 will be added to the score for your Paper 1 out of 20 for a total of 24 marks for Paper 1.

Important: Scores of less than 50% on the Justification Letter will indicate that Paper 1 was not thoroughly revised before submission of the final draft. If you score less than 50%, you will be contacted by the Course Coordinator to set up an appointment. Based on the appointment, an appropriate course of action will be planned by the student and the Coordinator. The Final Paper will only be accepted under these arrangements.