FAQs

What type of manuscripts do you edit?
I revise scientific journal articles, clinical trial reports, books, NIH grant proposals, PhD dissertations, systematic review articles, short communications, conference proceedings, essays, conference posters, abstracts, resumes (CVs), letters of correspondence with editors, website text, brochures, manuals, video transcripts, feasibility studies, white papers, patent applications, business reports and just about any formal, technical, academic or scholarly document you may have.

The majority of the manuscripts that I revise are on biomedical, medical, life sciences, and biological research. I also revise a great deal of computer science and engineering research papers; however, I have revised a wide range of texts from all the Physical Sciences, Natural Sciences, Arts and Humanities, and Social Sciences.

Who uses your editing service?
The majority of authors who use my service are scientists, scholars, graduate students, researchers and professionals in high tech or bio-tech industries. Many of my customers are non-native speakers of English.

What specific areas of research have you worked with?
I have copyedited research papers from the following areas of study:

Aerospace / Aviation

Bioengineering

Biology

Botany

Business

Chemical Engineering

Chemistry

Civil Engineering

Clinical trials

Computer Science

Cultural Anthropology

Earth Science

Economics

Education

Electrical Engineering

Entomology

Environmental Studies

Epidemiology

Geology

History

Immunology

Infectious Disease

Law

Life Sciences

Literary Studies

Materials Science

Medicine

Microbiology

Neurophysiology, Kinesiology

Nonclinical Trials

Nursing

Oceanography

Odontology

Oncology

Pharmacy

Philosophy

Physical Anthropology

Physics

Political Science

Preclinical studies

Psychiatry

Psychology

Public Health

Public Policy

Social Work

Sociology

Soil Science

Toxicology

Veterinary

Virology

What specifically do you edit in a manuscript?

My service involves light to heavy copyediting. Below you can find details on specific items I edit.

MECHANICAL EDITING
This includes following guidelines of a style manual for these items:

Punctuation
Spelling
Capitalization
Hyphenation
Italicization, underscoring, and boldfaced type
Abbreviations, including acronyms
Quotations
Tables, artwork and graphs
Presentation of numbers and statistics
International system of units

LANGUAGE EDITING

This involves aligning the language of your manuscript with conventional and idiomatic English. For scientific manuscripts, this includes recommending language that is more formal, academic, and consistent with your field of study. This includes checking the following elements:

Grammar
Word choice, including technical nomenclature
Style, including making texts more clear, concise, and coherent
Tone related to formal versus informal word choice
Rhetorical conventions and organizational structures of research papers
Textual and formatting conventions, including font size and type, margins, and spacing

CONTENT EDITING

I do a limited amount of content editing and fact checking. Yet, if I see clear irregularities with basic facts and content, I will query the author about these items. This may include the following:

Fact-checking in trusted sources and referencing the literature
Content editing
Numbers that do not add up or missing data
Inconsistencies in statistical testing
Verifying that what is reported in the body of a research paper (results, methods, findings, and references) matches what is reported in the abstract
Spot check for plagiarism

CORRELATING PARTS

Correlating parts involves verifying that sections of a manuscript logically and consistently connect. Some items I check include:

Checking for consistency between in-text references to tables and figures and correctly labeling these items
Checking description in captions and labelling against content of tables and figures
Verifying in-text citations and footnotes against references
Cross checking table of contents with manuscript
Checking alphabetization and other elements of bibliography and reference list

Can you align my manuscript with a writing style guide?

I align manuscripts with the style manuals listed below. Journals, academic institutions, and book publishers typically adhere to one of these style manuals or they develop and follow their own particular in-house style preferences. If you are unsure as to what style you should follow, check out the guidelines for authors page on the journal you are targeting. If you are writing a dissertation, your affiliated university or institution will prescribe these guidelines. Check out this list of gold-standard guidelines preferred according to field of study.

The Chicago Manual of Style

American Medical Association Manual of Style

Council of Scientific Editors

American Psychological Association

National Library of Medicine

The American Chemical Society

New Oxford Style Manual

Modern Language Association

Do you have any samples of the editing work you do?

Yes, I do. You can find them on this page: Examples of my Editing.

What should I do before I send you my manuscript?

Please check out this page: Checklist for Authors.