Abstract
In the publish or perish climate that has engulfed academia over the last few decades, it has become increasingly difficult to publish an academic paper in a reputable journal. Many authors have resorted to editing and proofreading services to help them improve their paper. But traditional editing services don't always work. There is no guarantee that an academic paper written in perfect English will be peer-reviewed or published. Just ask any academic that is also a native English speaker. Their papers also get rejected! One of the problems is that academics or early-career researchers don't receive the training required to write well-structured and engaging scholarly papers or to navigate through the complex world of academic publishing. How can we help? Our unique author support services are designed to help academics throughout the process of publishing a research paper in a peer-reviewed journal. This starts (and usually ends) with our core manuscript health check service, which provides authors with a critical analysis of their manuscript. We think this is a much better alternative to traditional article copyediting and proofreading services. We also provide a range of other services including cover letter development, reviewer and editor response letters, journal selection and formatting, as well as a manuscript concierge service that includes everything you could possibly need. Visit our about page for more information about our manuscript editing experience and our heart-centred business values.
Keywords: virtual editor; manuscript analysis; paper submission concierge; COVID-19 response
Introduction
Publishing a paper in an academic journal can take a long time: writing, editing, journal selection, formatting, submission, peer-review, rejection, minor revisions, major revisions, re-submission. Non-native English speakers need two times longer to prepare a paper for publication than native English speakers (200 hours vs. 100 hours). Even 100 hours is nothing to scoff at! Imagine what you can do with an extra 100-200 hours in the lab or with your collaborators instead of wasting your time to make sure that the references are in the correct format, your hyphens and en-dashes are used correctly, or your abstract is not two words over the word limit. Our author support services are designed to save you time during the publication process, and that does not mean just editing or proofreading of your paper.
The number of papers and the workload of editors and peer-reviewers is also at an all-time high. Editors screen papers and reject them if they don't meet technical requirements and the scope of the journal. They simply don't have the time to read between the lines to determine the novelty of your work. This wastes everyone's time. Precious time that can be directed towards more research. How can we save you time? By analysing the structure and content of your paper, we make sure that it is ready for submission to your target journal the first time you submit it. If you can prevent rejection of your paper because of poor fit, wrong style, bad structure, bad grammar, and spelling errors, it will save everyone's time. We also offer an all-inclusive manuscript acceptance concierge service, which provides you with complete publishing support until submission or acceptance of your journal paper.
Materials and Methods
Our services are divided into four main categories. You can choose from individual services or from one of our all-inclusive concierge services. If you don't see a service that is right for you, get in touch and we can discuss your needs.
The health check is our core service that we recommend for all our clients. Think of it as a doctor's appointment for your manuscript, cover letter, reviewer response letter, grant application, poster presentation, or any other scientific document. An experienced editor with publishing and peer-review experience will analyse your document and diagnose any issues that might prevent the acceptance of your manuscript by your target journal ("Target Journal" is important here! If you don't know your target journal you should not be ordering any editing services). We provide you with detailed feedback to help you improve your paper and make it through to the peer-review stage. After peer-review, we can also help you with your response to the editor and reviewer.
The concierge service is an all-inclusive service that is designed to reduce the hassle of publishing your paper. It includes all of our document health check services at a discounted price and optional additional services that will save you time. This is the best option if you need full publishing support until your manuscript is accepted and published, regardless of the number of revisions or times it is submitted to a journal.
We only recommend our traditional proofreading service if an editor or a reviewer has requested it. Copyediting and proofreading services only fix the symptoms, that is, bad grammar or bad spelling. These traditional author services rarely fix the real issues and don't address the real reasons that your manuscript will be rejected. That is why publishers don't guarantee the acceptance or publication of your manuscript even if you order their expensive in-house editing services.
Your publishing journey should not stop once your paper is published. Let everyone know about it. Promoting your accepted paper or discussing it on social media will open up new opportunities for collaboration and increase citations. And that leads to more papers, a better publication record, more job opportunities and more success, for you...and for us! We will share your article on our webpage and social media channels to increase exposure to your research. This service is included for free with any order.
Results
At The Science Editorium, we live and breathe research publications. Over the past three years, we have worked with over 200 researchers from 30 countries and 6 continents across the world. We have helped authors submit their papers for publication to over 100 journals. We think that our manuscript health check service is the best service to help academics publish their research. But don't just take our word for it.
Testimonials
Thank you very much for the thorough revision - I am really impressed! I've had edits done a few times before, but none was nearly as thorough as yours. I will definitely send all my papers to you in the future!
Lukas Beyer
Researcher from Regensburg, Germany
The review was very quick and the comments were very helpfully.
Jorge
Researcher from Mexico
Sample Work
The work we do for our clients is covered by our non-disclosure agreement. We can't share it with you but we do provide a few options for you to get a taste of the type of editing service we provide.
You can see examples of editing and the type of comments and advice you can expect to receive from our editors.
We also provide free editing services so that customers can try our services before ordering. We provide a manuscript rejection guarantee. If you (or an editor) are not happy, you can request a full refund or let us know if you need additional work.
Discussion
In addition to the services outlined above, check out our blog for advice and insider information about the publishing industry.
