Thoughts on Peer review, and growing as an academic. Yesterday I read a Peer review comment that made me actually laugh out loud because in the context it was a ridiculous (and meanly expressed) comment.
5 years ago I'd have cried and binned the whole project. (thread)

For context. I abandoned my first every Journal submission (I was a baby 3 years into my 4 years of PhD-ing) because the peer review comments were so mean, and personal. And because I had zero support in those 'extra activities' from my PhD team at the time.

This, and the shit-show that was my final year and corrections destroyed my confidence and I gave up on academic writing for a few years. Gradually I got back in the game by working with 'professional friends' as editors and slowly my confidence has returned.

BUT my confidence grew more from (ironically) working as a journalist. Where I got used to a collaborative approach with editors, and standing up for my work, as well as pitching which makes you force confidence.
TLDR I know I'm a decent/good writer now.

What I also know after five years in the wilderness, is if I'm pitching you my work, it's because I know my stuff.
And I'm going to show you I do.
That doesn't mean not taking constructive criticism. I LOVE actual constructive criticism. But it does mean saying 'actually no'

So in recent Peer reviews I got GENUINELY excited when someone suggested scholarship I'd missed, cos great! I can make it better! Because I want the thing to be the best it can be, so hell yeah let's incorporate that.
Same with constructive structural stuff.

But we get a LOT of mean stuff, designed to punch down. Now I'm old and bitter and hardy enough to laugh it off. Especially when someone tells me to 'read up' on what my PhD was actually on.
But we shouldn't have to go through all that to get there.

But I wish I'd known years ago that actually, you CAN push back if you work with a good editor/publisher. Obviously you have to take it on board. But it's also not a reflection of you as a person, or a scholar.
Quite often its a reflection of someone else.

And in conclusion, no I'm not binning off the project. It's a good project. Whether it's 'finished' right now or not is irrelevant. I'm good at it, the project is good and other comments were supportive.
One mean dude does not a project end.