| name | issta-author-response |
| description | Use when drafting an ISSTA author response for the rebuttal window or planning a Major-Revision resubmission, covering evidence-anchored replies, the Accept/Major-Revision/Reject outcome model, converting reviewer asks into a revision ledger, anonymity in the response, and the difference between a rebuttal claim and a promised change. |
ISSTA Author Response
Use this after ISSTA reviews are released. ISSTA's response step feeds a decision that is not just
accept/reject: a first-round paper can be told to submit a Major Revision, so the response and
the revision plan are two connected artifacts. Reopen the current author-response and
major-revision instructions before drafting, because the dates and mechanics are cycle-specific.
Triage
- Answer concerns that move the decision: soundness of the technique, fairness of the evaluation,
scope of the claims, comparison to related work, and verifiability. Cosmetic complaints come last.
- Use submitted evidence — paper sections, tables, the artifact, threats-to-validity discussion.
Do not promise experiments you have not run unless you can run them within a Major-Revision window.
- Keep the response anonymous. Do not reveal institution, tool name if it de-anonymizes, repository
ownership, or grant numbers in the rebuttal text.
- Separate a rebuttal correction (the reviewer misread something already in the paper) from a
promised change (something you will add). Label which is which so the meta-reviewer can weigh
the paper as-is against the paper-if-revised.
- If the review budget is tight, spend it on the one objection that, unaddressed, sinks the paper —
usually an evaluation-validity or missing-baseline concern.
Drafting pattern
- State the decision-critical correction or concession in the first line of each reply.
- Point to the exact table, figure, section, or artifact path that already answers it.
- Explain the consequence for the claim: what still holds, what you will scope down.
- Promise only changes that fit the outcome — a camera-ready wording fix for an Accept-leaning
paper, a concrete new experiment only if a Major-Revision window exists.
Reviewer pushback patterns
| Pushback | What it signals | ISSTA-ready reply |
|---|
| "Evaluated only on your own subjects" | External-validity doubt | Point to the labelled benchmark and its provenance, or commit to adding an established one (Defects4J, real CVEs) in revision |
| "Baseline is not configured fairly" | Comparison-validity doubt | Cite the equal-budget setup, or concede and re-run the baseline under the reviewer's configuration |
| "Improvement is within noise" | Statistical-significance doubt | Reference the non-parametric test and effect size, or add repeated runs in revision |
| "Cannot tell if the artifact reproduces this" | Verifiability doubt | Point to the entry script and logged outputs, or fix the README before the artifact deadline |
From reviews to a Major-Revision ledger
When the outcome is Major Revision, convert every review comment into a tracked row: the comment,
the change, where it lands in the paper, and its status. The resubmission's cover letter walks this
ledger; reviewers who see each of their points addressed in order revise upward.
[R2.3] "No comparison to reversed-order rerunning."
-> Added reversed-order baseline at equal budget; Table 2, rows 4-6. STATUS: done
[R1.1] "Shared-state model undefined for native calls."
-> Scoped native state out explicitly; Section 3.1, threats. STATUS: done
[R3.2] "Overhead not reported."
-> Added per-project overhead; Table 3. STATUS: in progress
Discussion-phase calibration
- Reply precisely and early; ISSTA response windows are short and a focused rebuttal beats an
exhaustive one.
- Never paste a whole new results section into the response box; summarize the finding and anchor it
to submitted or clearly-promised material.
- Do not argue tone. Convert a hostile review into the technical objection underneath it and answer
that.
Output format
[Priority issue] <reviewer concern>
[Decision dimension] soundness / evaluation / scope / related-work / verifiability
[Reply type] rebuttal correction / promised change
[Draft reply] <anonymous, evidence-anchored text>
[Evidence anchor] <table/figure/section/artifact path>
[Revision-ledger row] <comment -> change -> location -> status>
