Peer-Review Prep: Steelmanning Your Own Paper

Journal reviewers are overworked. They often focus on the easiest weaknesses to articulate: methods, stats, unclear writing, missing citations. You can have an LLM simulate this exact pass in 10 minutes.

The hostile-reviewer prompt

1. 1Run the hostile pass BEFORE you submit, not after rejection
2. 2Fix the easy stuff first (citations, clarity) — this alone saves rounds of revision
3. 3For the major revision issue, write a defense OR revise the paper
4. 4Save the LLM's review — if the real reviewers agree, you were on the right track

Response-to-reviewer drafts

After real peer review, LLMs are excellent at drafting polite, structured responses to reviewer comments. Ask for a 'response memo that addresses each comment numbered, with a one-line summary of the change and a pointer to the revised section.'

The big idea: catch your own weaknesses before reviewers do. A 10-minute AI pre-review buys you a round of revisions.