Responding to reviewers
What a statistical comment is checking and how to answer it.
- Respond to a reviewerReviewer asks you to correct for multiple comparisons: how to respondWork out which of three situations you are in, then use the matching reply, Methods sentence and code. Includes a worked example showing how five p-values change under Holm's correction.
- Respond to a reviewerReviewer asks you to justify your sample size: how to respondWork out which of three situations you are in, then use the matching reply and Methods sentence. Includes a sensitivity analysis you can run now and why observed power will not help.
- Respond to a reviewerReviewer asks for effect sizes: what to report and how to replyAdd the effect in your own units with its 95% confidence interval first, and a standardised effect only where units mean little. Per-design table, R and Python code, and reply templates.
- Respond to a reviewerReviewer asks why you did not use a non-parametric test: how to respondDecide which of three situations you are in — a measurement analysed with Welch's test, ordinal or outlier-driven data, or three animals per group — then use the matching reply, Methods sentence and code.
- Respond to a reviewerReviewer says your n is cells, not animals: how to respondDecide whether the reviewer is right about your design, re-run the test with the animal or experiment as the unit, and reply with a copy-ready paragraph — including what to write if the result is no longer significant.