Journal editor made bad edits to my (accepted) paper - how do I respond? Earlier this year I had a paper accepted to a well-recognized journal in a particular (humanities) subfield. I finally received proofs of the article, and was (more than a bit) upset at the edits. A lot of the changes were at the sentence level: phrasing, punctuation, word choice. 

These edits often 1) obscured my intended meaning (e.g. turned ONE grammatically correct sentence into TWO sentences that, because of the addition of a weird transition phrase, no longer says what I intended), and/or 2) over-simplified or diminished the prose (e.g. adding "to be" constructions, adding awkward and unnecessary "ultimately"s, "for example," etc.). 

So, how should I respond? Ultimately, I'd like to have 95% of the changes reversed. I would be mortified to publish the piece in its current state. 

I've published several times and never had this issue - usually edits are small (more proofreading than anything). Because I was sent PDFs, the process of sending back my "corrections" will be arduous (on some pages every sentence now needs fixing). I don't want to alienate the journal or the staff member who made the edits.
I finally received proofs of the article, and was (more than a bit) upset at the edits. 


How to respond?  Do not respond while upset.  Wait until you can respond in a calm way.

This is a perfectly normal occurrence.  Remember the journal relies on getting your work for free in order to get subscription fees to pay its expenses.  They need you more than you need them.  Do not hesitate to ask for anything that will help your publication improve.