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Services 

The primary service I offer is editing. I specialize in editing technical, scientific, and medical research manuscripts.​ ​This page is divided in to two sections that explain the services I provide: Levels of Editing and my Editing Checklist. The Levels of Editing section provides a broad overview of my editing service, while the Editing Checklist section 

provides a ​more detailed perspective.

 

Levels of Editing

 

​Editorial services typically categorize the services they provide based on what is known as levels of editing. These levels describe the full range of

tasks and analyses an editor will perform when editing a text. Below are the four different levels of editing that I can apply to your text, depending on your needs.

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  • proofreading

  • light copyedit

  • medium copyedit

  • heavy copyedit

 

Why should you care are about this? You can think of these levels of editing as something like a menu at a restaurant, where you can pick and choose based on your preferences. If you are unfamiliar with these levels of editing, I define them below. And if you need even more details than provided in this section, then continue to the following section, my Editing Checklist, which elaborates further on the items I edit.​ In addition to this page, you may also want to check out my FAQs page.

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Proofreading of documents involves the following:

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  • A very light edit is typically applied to a manuscript that has been through multiple revisions, rewriting, and copyediting (See list below for items included in a copy edit)

  • Applied to a document approved by an editor as ready for publication, without substantial changes

  • Applied to documents previously formatted and typeset in final publication layout

  • Applied by editors as final precaution before publishing, involving the most minimal of changes, such as possible spelling and punctuation errors that may remain in a text

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Light Copyediting involves the following:

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  • Correct all egregious, irrefutable errors in grammar and word usage. Note overly wordy passages, but do not revise. Ignore occasional sentences that are wordy, vague or jargon-laden. Note terms that may be unclear or new to your reader.

  • Revise for consistency in mechanical editing.

  • Correlating parts includes checking numbering of tables and figures; checking alphabetical order of references, etc.

  • Question any content or factual statements that appear incorrect

  • Point out any figures, tables, images, text or copyrighted material that might require permission to reproduce.

 

Medium Copyediting involves the following:

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  • Correct all errors in grammar and word usage. Note wordy, overly complex text and provide suggested revisions in comments. Provide definitions of terms that may be unclear or new to your reader

  • Revise for consistency in mechanical editing

  • Correlating parts includes checking numbering of tables and figures; checking alphabetical order of references, etc. 

  • Question any content or factual statements that appear incorrect. Use well-established primary reference materials to confirm factual content. 

  • Point out any figures, tables, images, text or copyrighted material that might require permission to reproduce.

  • When applicable, align manuscripts with a journal's guidelines for authors page.

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Heavy Copyediting involves the following:

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  • Correct all errors in grammar and word usage, including awkward, confusing, nonstandard, inappropriate language. Rewrite confusing overly lengthy text. Provide definitions of terms that may be unclear or new to your reader.

  • Revise for consistency in mechanical editing 

  • Correlating parts includes checking numbering of tables and figures; checking alphabetical order of references, etc. 

  • Question any content or factual statements that appear incorrect. Use well-established primary reference materials to confirm factual content and supply a revision of the text accordingly.

  • Point out any figures, tables, images, text or copyrighted material that might require permission to reproduce.

  • When applicable, align manuscripts with a journal's guidelines for authors page. See below, Aligning with a Journal's Guidelines for Authors

  • Align references with a writing style (AMA, Chicago, The CSE Manual, APA, etc. 

  • Provide developmental editing, which entails reviewing the larger organizational and rhetorical structure of a manuscript, including deleting, rewriting, and reordering entire sections of text.

  • Provide an assessment and critique of the content of your mansuscript

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​If you are not sure what level of editing you need, I can recommend a level based on the type of text your are publishing and the audience. For authors who need me to edit a scientific journal article, grant proposals, PhDi dissertations, academic monographs, websites, and regulatory documents and medical-legal review, I recommend a medium or heavy edit. For authors of internal facing company documents, a light edit may be sufficient for your purposes. For authors who were provided a galley proof from an editor, I recommend a proofreading.

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For authors needing more than a light or medium edit, you have the option of a more heavy copyedit, which could also include fact-checking and annotating documents, content editing, correlating parts, editing references, and aligning manuscripts with a journal's author guidelines. See below for a description of what is included in each of these options.

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Please let me know if you prefer a light, medium, or heavy copyedit. And if you need a heavy copyedit, please specify what categories you need edited. Please see my Price & Payment page for details about cost. A heavy copyedit takes longer, so cost increases.

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Editing Checklist

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

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  • Punctuation 

  • Spelling 

  • Capitalization 

  • Hyphenation

  • Page numbers, headers and footers

  • Italicization, underscoring, and boldfaced type

  • Abbreviations, including acronyms and initialisms

  • Quotations

  • Tables, figures and graphs

  • Presentation of numbers and statistics

  • International System of Units

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LANGUAGE EDITING

This involves aligning the language of your manuscript with conventional and idiomatic English. This includes checking the following elements:

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  • Grammar

  • Word choice, including technical nomenclature

  • Style, including making texts more clear, concise, correct, consistent, coherent, and compelling

  • Tone, involves ensuring that the word choice is appropriate for your audience and type of manuscript you are writing

  • Rhetorical conventions and organizational structures of scientific manuscripts 

  • Textual and formatting conventions, including font size and type, margins, and spacing, and other typography issues

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CONTENT EDITING

I do a limited amount of content editing and fact-checking unless the author requests more in-depth fact-checking. At a minimum, if I see irregularities or questionable facts and content, I will query the author about these items. I can also do a more systematic editing of content and fact-checking as well as annotation of text, as found in editing of manuscripts in a medical-legal regulatory review, if an author requests this. This may include the following:

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  • Fact-checking by consulting primary reference sources or by referencing the related literature 

  • Verifying that your summary of findings of other studies is consistent with the article you are summarizing 

  • Checking numbers that do not add up or missing data

  • Pointing out issues in reporting statistical data

  • Check for verbatim text from the reference source

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CORRELATING PARTS

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

  • Verifying that your summary of findings of other studies is consistent with the source article you are citing 

  • Verifying that numerical data presented in the text is consistent throughout the manuscript, including the tables, figures, abstract, introduction, methods, results, and discussion 

  • Checking for consistency between in-text references to tables and figures and correctly labeling these items

  • Checking for consistency in typeface formatting of levels of titles, headings, and subheadings

  • Checking description in captions and labeling against content presented in tables and figures

  • Verifying that all items presented in tables are presented consistently and use the same terminology or units of measure throughout the table

  • Verifying consistency of in-text citations and footnotes against references

  • Cross-checking table of contents with sections of the manuscript

  • Verifying that all text and numerical data are consistently formatted throughout all tables and figures

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EDITING REFERENCES

  • Aligning references with a particular style such as, AMA-11, Chicago, APA, CSE: Scientific Style and Format

  • Checking order and formatting style of authors, titles, publication dates, publisher, etc.

  • Verifying that links are active and correct; add a doi when applicable

  • Verifying that references are current, relevant, and high quality 

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ALIGNING WITH A JOURNAL'S GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS

  • Aligning your article with a journal's formatting and style preferences

  • Confirming that references are consistent with journal's guidelines

  • Confirming that word count for abstract and other sections of an article are within a journal's word limit

  • Verifying that tables and figures are aligned with journal guidelines and specifications

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