Letter Update

I've already gotten the referee's report on the letter! Actually, I recieved it the day after the referee got the paper – such a turn-around time is unheard of. Neither of my advisors had ever seen such a fast turn-around.

Of course, the first thing that went through my head when I saw the e-mail in my inbox was, "So fast? Was it that bad?" But, I needn't have worried. The referee thought that the paper should certainly be published, after some revision, which is standard in the 'biz. However, the referee also though that the paper should not be a Letter. Sigh.

What does this mean? The standards for publishing in ApJ Part I (i.e., the main journal) are a bit more stringent than the Letters, so the paper will need to be a bit more rigorous. The referee made a couple of suggestions of parts that need to be expanded – one easy and one not-so-easy. This week I'll start working on the easy stuff, but I need to chat with my advisors about the not-so-easy revisions before I'll know how to proceed with those.

The good news, though, is that the paper will eventually be published. I just need to do a bit more work on it. Oh, and the report even mentioned that the manuscript was well written, both in clarity and grammatical correctness – I know I'm a good fiction writer, but it's nice to get some confirmation that I'm also a good professional science writer.

I'll keep you updated with the next steps (which may take a few weeks).