Professional English editing makes it easier for your manuscript to get past desk rejection and through peer review because it makes your research easier to follow and your overall paper more polished and presentable. In this article, we’ll look at the specific ways in which professional editing improves your paper and how it supports you throughout the peer review process.
How professional editing increases journal acceptance
A professional editor can do the following for your research manuscript:
1. Craft an effective title, polish your abstract
The title is the first thing anyone notices about your paper. A well-crafted title, highlighting what your paper contributes, is the first step in getting your paper noticed and making it stand out.
Similarly, the abstract of your paper is what desk editors and peer reviewers look at to get an overview of your research. A professional editor makes sure that your abstract
- Contains all necessary information about your study goals, sample, and methodology
- Doesn’t include irrelevant material
- Highlights the key outcomes/findings of your study
- Indicates the main contribution of your research
- Meets the journal’s length requirements
- Is structure or unstructured as per journal guidelines
- Can be understood on its own, without referring to the main text
2. Make your contribution clearer
Few if any good journals lack submissions. If your paper doesn’t clearly outline how your findings extend, corroborate, or contradict existing knowledge or what are their theoretical, practical, or clinical implications, you’re not going to get it published easily. A professional editor makes sure that
- Your introduction sets context for your study and specifies what problem you are trying to solve
- Your literature review indicates what gaps or contradictions exist in published research on your topic
- Your Discussion section contextualizes your results and explains their importance
- Your cover letter, if any, makes it clear why your study and its results fit the aims and scope of your target journal
3. Make your findings/data easier to process
You’re so invested in your data that it seems natural to report and discuss every result. Or you know your study so well that you forget about notes to explain your tables. A professional editor can make your data or findings easier for readers to follow by
- Indicating content that is better presented as a table or figure
- Pointing out tables or figures that are not self-explanatory and need table notes/figure legends
- Clearing your Results section of clutter by including only key outcomes and avoiding long strings of numerical data in the main text
4. Format your manuscript as per journal requirements
Journals prescribe a specific format so that manuscripts can be processed easily and all relevant author metadata can be captured. If your paper wildly diverges from the journal’s formatting requirements, you’ll probably not make it even to peer review. A professional editor can assist you with various aspects of manuscript formatting, like
- Creating a separate title page
- Adjusting page layout, line spacing, font size and style, page numbering, etc.
- Placing figures and tables in the right locations within the manuscript file or in separate files
- Formatting citations and references as per the journal’s chosen style
- Verifying that all information the journal mandates, e.g., ethics declaration or authorship statement, is present
- Revising sections of the paper to meet word or character limits set by the journal
5. Prevent minor errors from obscuring the quality of your science
Your exciting findings on E. coli biofilms and antimicrobial resistance will be less credible if you put one too many Hs in “Escherichia”. The same applies to your whole-genome analysis of Staphylococcus aureus if you spell it “Staphlococcus”. Errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation distract readers from your research and make you look sloppy and careless. A professional editor will take care of these for you and also proofread your paper thoroughly for consistency in style and format.
Best editing services to increase your chances of acceptance
We’ve compiled for you our top recommendations for editing services that can make your paper shine.
Editage
Leading the scholarly communications community for over 23 years, Editage offers world-class editing and is a trusted publication partner for more than 5 million researchers.
Benefits of Editage editing services
- Editor pool of 3000+ subject matter experts
- Two expert checks to ensure overall quality
- Unlimited free chat with your editor
- One round of free journal formatting
Wiley Editing Services
Combining high quality standards and a range of services to support you at every stage of your publication journey, Wiley Editing Services is a very popular choice among researchers.
Benefits of Wiley Editing Services
- ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified IT security management systems
- Every manuscript reviewed by a senior reviewer
- 100% on-time delivery
- Free journal cover letter and manuscript assessment under certain packages
Taylor & Francis Editing Services
Taylor & Francis Editing Services helps you maximize your efficiency and productivity with their range of editing services to polish your manuscript for submission.
Benefits of Taylor & Francis Editing Services
- Free language scorer tool to help you choose the right editing level for your manuscript
- All editors are native English speakers, holding a Master’s or PhD
- Unique editor-selection algorithm to match your manuscript with the right expert
Sage Author Services
Known for a strong quality focus, Sage Author Services delivers error-free manuscripts checked by experienced subject matter experts.
Benefits of Sage Author Services
- Editors with 20+ years of experience
- 2000+ subject matter experts
- Experience in 1100+ subject areas
Scribendi
Scribendi does more than correct language errors in your manuscript: their editors improve clarity, coherence, and tone to make it ready for submission.
Benefits of Scribendi
- Versatile editing service handling everything from fiction to business documents
- Specialized editing service for the humanities and social sciences
- High security: all uploads and downloads are encrypted
