phg-rebuttal

name	phg-rebuttal
description	Use when responding to a Progress in Human Geography (PiHG) decision letter (major/minor revision) — building a point-by-point response to the editor and referees that strengthens the review's argument and coverage. Structures the response and revisions; it does not fabricate literature or claims.

Revision & Rebuttal (phg-rebuttal)

A major revision at PiHG is a scoped invitation, not a rejection. The response letter is read alongside the revised essay by the editor and the referees — usually senior figures in your sub-field. You win by addressing every point, respectfully and concretely, and by strengthening the intervention and the command of the literature, not by patching wording. Because PiHG is a review journal, most fixes are argumentative and bibliographic, not new data.

When to trigger

• A decision letter arrived: minor revision, major revision (R&R), or reject-with-encouragement
• Referees disagree, or one challenges the coverage, the attribution, or the novelty of the intervention
• You need to decide what to concede, what to push back on, and how to show the changes

Build the response

1. Open with a synthesis. A short note to the editor summarizing the main changes and how the revision strengthens the argument, the intervention, and the coverage.
2. Point-by-point, quote each comment. Reproduce each referee/editor comment verbatim, then respond directly beneath it. Number them (R1.1, R1.2 …) for cross-reference.
3. Show, don't assert. For each accepted point, quote the revised text and give the location (section/paragraph); for added literature, name the works and where they now appear.
4. Disagree carefully. Where you decline, give a reasoned rationale and, where possible, a partial accommodation — never dismiss a referee who is in the field.

PiHG-specific moves

• "Missed literature" is first-order. If a referee names works you omitted, add and integrate them into the synthesis (not a token citation), and check none change the argument. Correct any attribution error immediately — a misplaced concept or journal loses a reviewer fast.
• Strengthen the intervention, not just coverage. If a referee called the essay "a summary" or "toothless," the fix is a sharper critical move (phg-critical-intervention) and a clearer organizing concept (phg-theory-building) — more citations alone will not answer it.
• Reconcile divergent referees on their own terms. A political-economy referee and a post-structural referee may pull in opposite directions; name the tension for the editor and show how the revision serves both, rather than silently satisfying one.
• Widen reach where flagged. If coverage was called parochial, engage Global-South / non-Anglophone work where it exists, and name the honest limit where it does not.
• Honor the short cap on the way back. Revisions add words; re-check the ~8,000-word inclusive cap and cut walk-throughs or move detail to endnotes sparingly (they count too).

Response micro-template (illustrative)

R2.2 (verbatim): "This reads as a competent survey but I finished it unsure what the field is supposed to
  do differently."
Response: We agree the intervention was under-stated. We have (a) recast Section 4 around a single
  claim — that treating the platform as a bounded object hides the relational circuit — and (b) added a
  forward agenda (Section 5) with three concept-driven questions for economic, feminist, and urban
  geographers. Revised text: "Following the circuit rather than the platform, research should now ask…"
  (§5, ¶1). We also integrated the three works the reviewer noted (added at §3.2) into the synthesis.

This concedes the point, shows the structural fix and its location, and integrates the missed works — the move editors reward over "we have strengthened the argument."

Decision triage (how hard to fight)

Referee ask	Posture
Missed / misattributed literature	Concede and integrate; it is first-order at this venue
"Add an empirical study / data"	Push back on genre — PiHG publishes reviews, not empirical work
"The intervention is thin"	Concede; sharpen the critical move and concept, not just citations
Divergent-tradition referees clash	Reconcile; name the tension for the editor
Out-of-scope demand (a different essay)	Decline with rationale; offer a scoped accommodation

Checklist

• Every comment quoted and answered (numbered, point-by-point)
• Revised text quoted with locations; added literature named and integrated
• Attribution errors corrected; missed works woven into the synthesis, not tokenized
• Intervention and organizing concept strengthened where "summary/toothless" was the charge
• Divergent referees each addressed on their own terms; tensions named for the editor
• Re-checked against the ~8,000-word inclusive cap and SAGE Harvard style

Anti-patterns

• "We have addressed this" with no shown change
• Answering "missed literature" with a token citation, not integration
• Answering "thin intervention" with more coverage instead of a sharper argument
• Being talked into adding empirical data to a review essay
• Dismissing or arguing combatively with a referee who is in the field
• Blowing past the short cap while adding requested material

Output format

【Decision】minor / major (R&R) / reject-with-encouragement
【Editor synthesis】2–3 lines on the main changes
【Point-by-point】each comment quoted + response + revised-text location
【Coverage fixes】missed works integrated + attributions corrected
【Intervention strengthened】sharper critical move / clearer concept
【Cap re-check】within ~8,000 inclusive after revisions? [Y/N]
【Next】resubmit via SAGE Track (phg-submission for final preflight)

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — review model, decision categories, and genres
• ../../resources/README.md — how the resources support argument and coverage fixes