Hi Khurram,

This is a common issue for authors where English is not their native language. There are some 'obvious' resources available to you - such as you could hire a professional editor to proof-read for you. Do remember though, that unless they understand research process, they can only edit what they understand. However, there would be a variable cost for this service.

Another pragmatic solution is to approach an English native-speaking researcher to your research team. However, English language and grammatical construction is not the only common reason that manuscripts are rejected. I review for over 40 international journal in my field. If there are lot's of grammatical errors, for instance, they are often accompanied by other errors - such as outside of the scope of the journal, not following the journal house-style etc. The attached chapter may assist in detailing the 'whole' publication process in terms of steps authors can systematically take that will likely ensure higher successful publication experiences.

Hi Khurram,

This is a common issue for authors where English is not their native language. There are some 'obvious' resources available to you - such as you could hire a professional editor to proof-read for you. Do remember though, that unless they understand research process, they can only edit what they understand. However, there would be a variable cost for this service.

Another pragmatic solution is to approach an English native-speaking researcher to your research team. However, English language and grammatical construction is not the only common reason that manuscripts are rejected. I review for over 40 international journal in my field. If there are lot's of grammatical errors, for instance, they are often accompanied by other errors - such as outside of the scope of the journal, not following the journal house-style etc. The attached chapter may assist in detailing the 'whole' publication process in terms of steps authors can systematically take that will likely ensure higher successful publication experiences.

In your work place there must be someone who has professional knowledge in your field and good in English as well. Take their help and so far as I believe they will happily help you.

Dear Khurram,

see the following link:

http://www.kgsupport.com/

This website provides a reliable and high quality proofreading service within short time and less money than you mentioned in your question.

Hi Khurram, it is wrong for journals to reject based on grammar/spelling. The quality of the research or relevance of the subject to the readership should be the priority - editing is easily done by professional proof readers during the process of publication. Editors/reviewers should be helping young researchers who do not have English as a first language and not penalizing them.

Hi Glenn - I agree in a way - but not another. There is so much competition out there - that journals can 'draw a line in the sand' i.e. is the 'research quality good' versus ' 'is the research quality good and how much work work does it involve for the journal to bring it up to publication standard'? I have had a number of manuscripts returned to me, before review, where they have questioned full stops or commas out of place in the reference list. Often - that review process is well before it makes it to the proof readers - ready fro publication.

I agree and recommend the answer of Dr. Dean Whitehead

Although I have no experience with such services, I would prefer to ask a colleague who is familiar with your topic and has high English language skills as well. As Dean Whitehead already pointed out in his first reply, the proof readers 'can only edit what they understand'. Therefore, the help of a colleague would be a better (and less expensive) choice.

Best Regards

Andreas

The best person to proof-read the scientific person is the one who is working in the same team, co-author for example, will understands the work and can express it correctly. As Dr. Whitehead suggested, apart from grammatical errors, some semantic errors might occur due to lack of language proficiency. Thanks for the chapter shared by Dr. Whitehead.

Hello Dean, I see your point. I would say it is easier to publish today than it has ever been-if you can afford the fees. The line in the sand is arbitrary and I know some editors who take the opposite view and do try to help, at least a quota, of young researchers or those who do not have EFL. That is the way it should be!

I would agree with what was said before.

Proofreading of a page is anywhere between £5-40 per page, depending who you ask and how quickly you will need the revisions (most universities have nowadays links towards such services where you could check the price, etc). 600 is not a big price (depending on how many pages you had) & Elsevier makes a buck or two offering people who are not native speakers the ‘chance’ to pay for Els. service (what warranty do you have that after you paid the price, the article will go through, and won’t be considered bullocks by researchers in the field?) The major problem with proofreading, and I’ve had colleagues who are native speakers (including people who have a literature degree and do proofreading in a professional capacity) is that in general you do not get advice which you could have not discovered by yourself, if you checked several time your production for consistency & coherence. The only useful advice I could get, was related more to the choice of words I’ve made (there are some subtleties that you don’t know even after words of practice), but beyond that, advice was mostly useless, especially when the proof-readers do not really have an understanding of your field (and this is true in most of cases) and the conventions applicable in the field. Probably, the best alternative (and one susceptible to yield superior results) to proofreading is to read carefully and intensively the journals where you want to publish and to make notes of the conventional language used in this articles. This way, you will understand not only the conventions related to structure of the articles that these journals apply, but also increase your vocabulary and the overall conventions of the field. Although this strategy requires a lot of time, it allows you to have a greater mastery of the language and of the field (in the end). And unfortunately, there are no shortcuts here (proofreading is an illusory one), and this is true for the writing of articles in any language, not just in English. A good article, in any language, is one that is written several times (at least), and what does not make sense in your language, always does not make sense in English as well. Besides (and this is the last point I wish to make), a good journal usually have two choices when it receive the blind reviews. Either to reject (if you have at least one negative report) or to propose revisions. If you have a rejection because the reviewers did not understand a word in English, obviously that any proofreading won’t push you in the phase when you might have the article revised. There is no warranty that the journal will accept your propose, as one the reviewers may reject it as well. So you will be just in the position when you will have your article read. If the article was accepted with revisions, then you just need to read the reports (which will be made available to you) and proceed with what the reviewers suggested. If they’ve suggested some proofreading (I really doubt they would), then you could do this, otherwise….. ?

Very effective list is provided by Asaad Ali Karam