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I have got my submitted paper`s review comments. One of the reviewers commented and suggested as follows:

Reviewer 1 Recommendation: Accept (minor edits) Comments: The paper has been carried out in detail with an explanation. There can be some more heuristic explanation regarding some of the major fuzzers that you felt better and why so can be discussed mathematically?

So we do not want to add some math formulas to describe the proposed tools and all of us authors consider mathematical formulas not necessary for our review paper. So how should I reply to this comment in a polite way? Or do I have to add some math?

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    Just provide more explanation and state to the reviewer why presenting the same information mathematically does not add anything.
    – Prof. Santa Claus
    Commented Aug 25, 2021 at 6:12
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    Thank you @Prof.SantaClaus sir for your reply, what do you think if I reply like this "Given the majority of information that needs to be presented, we have tried to express hybrid fuzzing tools in a simple and clear way without mathematical formulas. We hope this does not cause inconvenience to readers".
    – Shoh
    Commented Aug 25, 2021 at 8:40
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    @Shoh that's not a good response. The fact that the reviewer is asking means it may cause 'inconvenience' to readers. So you would need to provide the additional info clearly in English or mathematically or both.
    – Prof. Santa Claus
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 0:13

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You are not under an obligation to address all the referee's comments, though you need to convince the editor that it's not necessary to do so (which will be a lot easier if you can convince the referee). On the one hand, addressing them is usually the path of least resistance. On the other hand, if you feel strongly this would decrease the value of the paper, and especially since the referee labeled this comment as "minor," I think it would be reasonable to respectfully explain in your response to the referee why you feel adding the mathematical details would detract from your goals in writing the paper. You could consider adding a statement to the text explicitly stating why you won't cover topics in mathematical detail. Another idea (especially since this is a review), is to add a statement like "mathematical details can be found in Refs [X,Y,Z]."

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  • Thank you for your reply, what do you think if I reply like this "Given the majority of information that needs to be presented, we have tried to express hybrid fuzzing tools in a simple and clear way without mathematical formulas. We hope this does not cause inconvenience to readers".
    – Shoh
    Commented Aug 25, 2021 at 8:37
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    What about "Given the breadth of material covered in this review, we only provide a high-level overview of hybrid fuzzing tools to orient the reader. More complete descriptions can be found in Refs. [A, B, C]." (you could add this sentence to the paper, and in the referee response quote this sentence.)
    – Andrew
    Commented Aug 26, 2021 at 12:11

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