I have read many articles where the description of respondents (their characteristics) are put at the beginning of results section. Is it ok? Will your manuscript be rejected if you did so, but reviewers require it to be in methodology section?
2 Answers
It depends: If you chose the respondents based on those characteristics, then it is part of your design and should thus be part of the methods section. If they weren't your choice, but instead an empirical finding, then it belongs in the results section.
Apparently, your reviewers thought those characteristics were part of your design. If that is not the case, then your text describing your design is not clear, and in that case that is what should be fixed, rather than moving text around.
answered Nov 6, 2022 at 20:43
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Thank you for your explonation, sir. I haven't received feedback from reviewers yet. In my case, characteristics were something I found during research, not something I used for choosing respondents. What do you think would reviewers recommend moving this in mathodology section or just reject the manuscript? Commented Nov 6, 2022 at 20:54
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I don't know. I was just interested if that is a reason for rejection or could they request some changes. Thanks. Commented Nov 6, 2022 at 21:47
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1Both are possible. It is such a hypothetical scenario, that I can't say more than that. Commented Nov 6, 2022 at 21:59
One can't predict what the editor will require. But the "expected" characteristics are probably best in the methodology. On the other hand, if the actual respondents didn't actually conform, then something in results might be essential. This would especially be true if there were no necessary characteristics in the target population. But the methodology should state that explicitly.
But normally, I'd think, that you describe the target population in the methodology.
You can ask the editor for advice, of course.
