What are the practical and effective ways of getting scientific papers proofread?
If you are pursuing your postgraduate or research study, you can seek help from your supervisor / adviser, professor(s) who are the subject matter expert in your research area.
If you are in academia or completed your research degree, you can seek help from peers, colleagues or even article reviewers that you might get in touch with through certain networking.
You can also consider ResearchGate, Academia.edu etc. members since their profile & published papers are visible in the websites for your reference.
After receiving feedback from proof readers - go through their comments with open mind, change / improve if needed, perform further literature review or seek 2nd opinion if you are not sure etc. Wishing you all the best.
Proof reading helps to add the following: Constructive criticism, shedding light on ideas that may be clear to one but vague to the reader, missing facts, smoother writing, advice to add supporting arguments, etc... So, how?
Peer reviews, networking with scientists and encourage collaboration, approach RG scientists, and make sure to have a circle of research members who practice active collaboration.
There are business outlets that specialise in providing editing services. Publishing firms like Springer, Elsevier, Sage, etc have such services, but it will cost you money. You can ask colleagues in your discipline to help provide you with feedbacks.
Dear Emeka, this is an interesting problem for debate.
Thank you for your intelligent question.
Depending on who performs "proof reading", this could be good, or bad...
No manuscript should ever be delivered for publication without previous proof reading, first by the authors (all), and second by the the Editors, that will provide adequate specialists for the task.
Overall, when this is performed by adequate specialists on the matter, proof reading may add quality to the manuscript. Nevertheless, poor quality reviewers may mislead the quality, acting as impairment, when the authors are better experts on the subject than the proofreaders. We should take care.
Proofreading enterprises have been "polluting" my mail inbox, lately, and I don't much trust these. I would prefer having the specialised Journal I choose, to provide for that service... Journal editing and scientific publications may gradually become a new form of comercial activity, worldwide. We authors should be careful, there is money involved,
What are the practical and effective ways of getting scientific papers proofread?
If you are pursuing your postgraduate or research study, you can seek help from your supervisor / adviser, professor(s) who are the subject matter expert in your research area.
If you are in academia or completed your research degree, you can seek help from peers, colleagues or even article reviewers that you might get in touch with through certain networking.
You can also consider ResearchGate, Academia.edu etc. members since their profile & published papers are visible in the websites for your reference.
After receiving feedback from proof readers - go through their comments with open mind, change / improve if needed, perform further literature review or seek 2nd opinion if you are not sure etc. Wishing you all the best.
Dear Colleagues,
Good Day,
"THE WRITER'S HANDBOOK
HOW TO PROOFREAD
Please, goto the link for more details ....
http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/Proofreading.html
Dear Colleagues,
Good Day,
"How to Proofread Effectively
by Richard Nordquist
Listen to what Mark Twain had to say on the subject of proofreading, and then consider our 10 tips for proofreading effectively.
The difference between the almost-right word & the right word is really a large matter—it's the difference between the lightning-bug & the lightning.
Twain's well-known observation appears at the top of the "Language/Writing" page of a university's continuing education website—just above a blurb for "Mistake-Free Grammar & Proofreading." Except that Twain's line is misquoted, and the word lightning is twice misspelled as lightening."....
Please, goto the link to see the rest of the interesting article.....
https://www.thoughtco.com/top-proofreading-tips-1691277
Dear @Hussin Jose Hejase, @Emeka W. Dumbili, @Maria Bettencourt Pires, @Han Ping Fung and @Hazim Hashim Tahir,
Thank you very much for your contributions!
If you can spend money, get the help from scientific writing services. Else, collaborate with peer researchers actively ....
If I might add my two cents to the mix, I'd suggest hiring a professional medical/scientific editor like myself. There are plenty of excellent, talented freelance--relatively inexpensive, too--options out there, rather than hiring an editing house from one of the "big guys." Asking your colleagues to proofread your paper is always a nice option, but a professional editor specializing in scientific publications and familiar with the nuances of publishing will catch those errors your colleagues might miss.
Dear @Sherri Damlo,
Thanks for your nice suggestion. In first place, I need to niggle the options available.
Nirmala, i think , nothing better than developing yourself ...in this very important field as well.
@Hulya, I second what @Sherri has said. I, too, am a professional science editor.
However, I'd like to know what you are really looking for. Proofreading was historically just that – proof-reading: checking the typeset proof against the original type- or manuscript. What a professional proofreader provides is essentially a service to clean up your spelling, grammar and punctuation. They may ocassionally suggest a change of word here and there (part of the grammar check), but they should not be editing your paper.
If you want a thesis proofread, I belive that most academic institutions will allow you to have it done per my description above, and no more. If you are beyond thesis level, then you can go for 'proper' editing. If you were to ask me to edit your paper, I'd not only do those things mentioned for proofreading, but also get into the nitty gritty of best word-choice, flow, structure, and some level of checking your references. As an experienced science editor, I would also be in a position to provide some critique of your scientific arguments as well (something that would almost certainly not be allowed if I was proofing a thesis).
Hope that helps.
Dear @Guy Robert Manners,
Thank you so much for your interest and detailed explanations which are very useful for me to make sure about the process I will go through for my manuscript.
Good pointers Guy. These pointers are fundamental especially if we have to pay for the service. There is a good difference there.
As already mentioned by some, there are plenty of editing services available. The big publishers are also starting to establish their own editing services to help authors prepare their manuscripts. The services are definitely practical, and mostly effective. In most cases, you don't really know who the paper is sent to. Although it is usually an expert in the field, with a PhD or a postdoc in that field, they are not usually experienced editors and proofreaders. As an editor, I come across a lot of papers that have been "proofread" by experts but are poorly written and need a lot of fixing. I decided to launch The Science Editorium to provide a unique author support model by providing writing and editing support for scientists during the entire publication process. In this way, you can get support as you write your article, not at the very end.
Please visit https://www.scienceeditorium.com to find out more.
https://www.scienceeditorium.com
I think the first step is that the author should be diligent enough to avoid inexcusable errors and typos in the work. This will help to prevent whoever is reading the work from getting discouraged or bore by the presentation!
Dear Olusola T Bolaji,
You are right to some extent. In my opinion, no matter how meticulous the author(s) is about the writing mechanics and grammar overall, it is usually much better to get your work checked by the second or even third professional eye.
Hulya,
My company, JournalEdit, would be honored to help with editing of your manuscript.
We employ a team of highly-qualified academics and industry professionals (PhD or Masters-level graduates), who are native English speakers. By leveraging our network of subject matter experts, we can pair your manuscript with an experienced editor in the same technical discipline, to provide step-by-step guidance and help maximize your potential as an author.
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Peer reviews are helpful. The University magazine/newspaper editorial is helpful. Colleagues in your research circle from other universities...
We have launched free editing services. Please see the project page here on researchgate for more details:
https://www.researchgate.net/project/Free-Scientific-Language-Editing.
I have revised over 1,600 research papers, published in a wide variety of high-impact international scientific journals. Unlike some of the larger companies that provide this service, my prices are affordable, and since I am a sole freelance editor, I develop relations with my customers going back over a decade, and I strive to be highly responsive to their needs. I guarantee that customers papers will not be rejected due to the English language. Below is a link to my website where you can read testimonials of satisfied researchers, and get other relevant information about my editing service. My website provides a great deal of information and free tips on writing research papers, particularly for authors who are not native speakers of English: https://www.academicenglishsolutions.com.
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