Q: 

回复审稿人时，使用“if you would like”是否得体？

审稿人想让我提供更多的实验数据，但是我感觉之前稿件提供的数据已经充分和具有代表性了，我表达了这一观点，并且还表达了“如果你愿意，我们可以提供更多的数据”，在这句话里我用的英文是“...if you would like”,would like用于说自己是合适的，不知道用于对方审稿人，这种用法是否礼貌得体？

A:

不太建议用"if you would like"的形式，在回复审稿人意见的时候，诚恳的态度非常关键，最好可以附上一个cover letter。当你不同意审稿人的意见时，你可以说“Thank you for your comments. We understand your concern about XXX. However, because YYY. To make this clearer we have changed ZZZ on page/line XX.”首先站在审稿人的角度上去肯定审稿人的意见，然后客观的指出文章的原意，并且做出具体解释。从另一个角度来看，既然审稿人都理解错了，其他的读者更有可能，说明文章的表达还是需要改进的。建议对相关的句子重写，尽量表述得更加清晰。

在这里我们也分享一些常见的回复审稿人模板供题主参考：

当你同意审稿人意见时，可以这样写：

Thank you for your comments. We agree with your suggestion to XXX, because YYY. We have made changes to ZZZ on page/line XX as you suggested.

回复重点要包括以下几项：

• thank the reviewer

• say that you agree and explain why

• describe the changes you made

• indicate where you made the changes

当你不同意或对审稿人意见持怀疑态度时，可以这样写：

Thank you for your comments. We understand your concern about XXX. However, because YYY. To make this clearer we have changed ZZZ on page/line XX.

回复重点要包括以下几项：

• thank the reviewer

• show that you understand the comment

• explain why you disagree and your changes 

• indicate where you made the changes

另外还有一些常见的回复审稿人意见的表达形式，如：

What you want to say: You just didn't understand what we wrote!

What you should: Some statements that we made were slightly ambiguous; we have clarified the text

What you want to say: That experiment would take forever!

What you should: The suggested experiment is very interesting; however, we feel that it is beyond the scope of our study

What you want to say: You didn’t even read what we wrote!

What you should: We did not intend to indicate ‘XYZ’ and have therefore altered the text to specify ‘PQR’

What you want to say: You are being too picky about grammar and formatting

What you should: We apologize for the errors and have made the suggested changes