Academic Speak?

I had submitted a paper to a journal and it was returned with a Revise and Resubmit letter and a copy of two reviews. I would think that would entail some contructive critism. And to this end one of the reviewers wrote:

As a potential avenue of research the paper makes interesting proposals. But the arguments are not fleshed out. The scholarship is very slight--especially on Hobbes.

While I take "scholarship" in this context mean secondary literature (where she is correct that I did not make much reference to) and not just an ad hominem it is not a tone I had expected from a R&R letter.

A tough bunch they are...