Arecon Revision

Revision & Response for a Review (arecon-revision)

When to trigger

• A Committee/referee letter on the invited review arrived
• Referees flagged missing literatures, imbalance, mischaracterization, or "reads like a list"
• The editor asked to expand, cut, or rebalance coverage, or to make the framework explicit
• You need a point-by-point response for a review article, not a primary paper

Categories of review feedback (and how to answer each)

ARE revision asks cluster differently from primary-research asks. Triage every point into one bucket:

AREcon-specific revision ledger

Annual Review of Economics revisions should leave a clear economics review contract, not just a longer bibliography. Maintain a ledger that tells the editor how each change sharpens what an economist can learn from the review.

Use the ledger to prevent a common AREcon failure mode: adding every requested citation while the review's economic proposition becomes less visible.

Writing the response letter

• Point-by-point, quote-then-respond. Reproduce each comment, then state the change and where it lives (section/page/table).
• Coverage asks: concede and integrate. A missing literature is a real defect in a review of record; adding it strengthens the article. Resist defensiveness — the omitting author may be the referee who named it.
• Balance asks: show the steelman. Demonstrate the revised text states the other side at its strongest; that is what a fairness complaint actually demands.
• Accuracy asks: fix exactly. Mischaracterizing a reviewed author who is your referee is the fastest route to a hostile second round; correct the wording precisely and, where helpful, quote their own framing.
• Translate additions into economic learning. When you add a literature, say whether it changes a mechanism, an estimand, a benchmark magnitude, or only the historical coverage.
• Separate evidence classes. Do not let theory, calibration, quasi-experiment, structural estimate, and descriptive trend evidence collapse into one "evidence says" paragraph.
• Disagree rarely and respectfully. If an ask would break the spine or overrun the page envelope, explain the trade-off and propose an alternative, ideally pre-cleared with the editor.
• Keep the editor central. On scope and conflicting referee asks, ask the Committee editor to adjudicate rather than satisfying mutually-incompatible referees.
• Track every addition's ripple. Adding a literature can shift the review's center of gravity; after each integration, re-check that the framework cells, the summary tables, and the balance audit still hold, and that the draft still fits the volume's length envelope.
• Mind the volume clock. Revisions run against a production deadline (arecon-review-process); plan the rework so the article stays in its volume.

Checklist

• Every comment triaged into a bucket (coverage / balance / appraisal / framework / accessibility / scope)
• Coverage gaps conceded and integrated into the right framework cell; saturation re-run
• Balance complaints answered by demonstrable steelmanning + self-citation re-audit
• Mischaracterizations corrected precisely (reviewed authors may be the referees)
• "Annotated bibliography" asks answered by a stronger/explicit spine, not reordering
• Theory, identification, magnitude, boundary, and policy/welfare stakes separated in the revision ledger
• Accessibility fixes add intuition / define jargon for the adjacent economist
• Scope conflicts routed to the editor; rework fits the page envelope and the volume deadline
• Point-by-point letter: quote-then-respond, with section/page/table locations
• Comprehensiveness + balance re-audited after all additions

Anti-patterns

• Defending an omission rather than adding the missing literature (a review gap is a real defect)
• Answering a balance complaint with assertions of fairness instead of revised, steelmanned text
• Dismissing or re-mischaracterizing a reviewed author who is likely your referee
• "Fixing" an annotated-bibliography critique by shuffling paragraphs without imposing a spine
• Treating theory, reduced-form evidence, structural estimates, and descriptive facts as interchangeable support
• Adding policy motivation without preserving the review's uncertainty and welfare-relevant caveats
• Bloating scope to satisfy every "also cover…" until the review overruns its length and slips the volume
• Trying to satisfy two contradictory referees instead of asking the editor to decide

Output format

【Triage】each comment bucketed (coverage/balance/appraisal/framework/accessibility/scope)? Y/N
【Coverage gaps】conceded + integrated into framework cells; saturation re-run? Y/N
【Balance】steelman shown in revised text; self-citation re-audited? Y/N
【Appraisal fixes】mischaracterizations corrected precisely? Y/N
【Framework asks】spine strengthened/made explicit (not reordered)? Y/N
【Economics ledger】theory/design/magnitude/boundary/policy stakes separated? Y/N
【Scope/length】fits page envelope + volume deadline? Y/N
【Letter】point-by-point, quote-then-respond, with locations? Y/N
【Next step】→ arecon-submission (re-deliver the revised review)

Source: brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills → Annual-Review-of-Economics-Skills/skills/arecon-revision/SKILL.md