English Editing of Scientific Manuscripts for Publication

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“The first draft is black and white. Editing gives the color”

– Emma Hill

Excellent and extraordinary scientific manuscripts written in poor English may end up inferior and ordinary one.  Hence English is as important as science in writing them.  Also, for publishing in international journals, it is critical to write in quality English. There is a saying that “if you think writing difficult, tries editing”.  But English editing of manuscripts is crucial as its writing. Many manuscripts are rejected not because of the quality of research but because of the quality of English. 

What is the best way to convey our research findings through writing?

The purpose of English editing is for the effective communication of the research for the scientific fraternity.  In this era of information technology at its peak, it is a difficult task to make an individual contribution. It is due to the daunting and challenging task of distinguishing ideas from that of others. So the researchers end up with one of the main questions of their research:

Purpose of English editing:

International scholars are no exception:

Even many authors with native English language find it difficult to choose the right words for scientific manuscript writing.  And for those with English, not their mother tongue (non-native speakers), it becomes a nightmare.  Even international scholars are not an exception to this problem as they also have to overcome considerable difficulties in order to publish their research in international journals.  Hence most of them end with words which lack precision, such as “less rich vocabulary” and “less facility of expression” which fails them to optimize impact potential. 

The effects of improper English editing:

A scientific manuscript without proper English editing will cause many issues to the researcher /authors which includes:

• It is difficult to read and understand by the editors of peer-reviewed journals and other researchers
• It may make the central content of the research obscure
• It gives a wrong opinion to the publishers on the researcher of not properly editing or proofreading the manuscript and also the quality of the research consequently
• Gives a wrong impression on the researcher of not able to come to proper arguments and conclusions of the research
• Above all, it could be the reason for its rejections by reputed journals and publications

How could proper English editing improve scientific manuscripts?

Flowerdew and colleagues (2016[1]) presented the overall picture of the manuscript revision changes that were made before the manuscripts were accepted for publication. Of all changes, almost 39% are substitutions at different levels, with the majority of them at the word level. For instance

• Clarity:

Clarity of the manuscripts makes the reads to analyze deeply on the research.  It will enable peer reviewers, editors, colleagues, and other researchers to focus on the value of the manuscript.

• Precision:

The precision of the manuscript will efficiently convey to the readers the methods applied in research. It also convinces them that the investigation is done is a responsible, reproducible, and a well-grounded one. A paper will be more readable if words are used economically in a well-organized manner. The example below shows the unnecessarily wordy and improved versions.

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Unnecessarily wordy	Improved version
Brief in duration	Brief
We repeated the experiment again	We repeated the experiment
It was precooled before use	It was precooled.
At this point in time	Now
The reason was because	Because

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• Organization:

Organization of manuscripts will enhance the comprehension of the research paper to persuade the readers that the analysis is properly developed. It will also affirm the proper way of deriving conclusions and the natural way it arrived. 

English editors worldwide edit scientific manuscripts:

Since all the researchers want their scientific manuscripts edited to perfection, they seek the help of professional English editors. There are a lot of recognized editors worldwide for excellent English editing. They charge per word of the manuscripts, and it is an expense worth every penny of it.  It is because of the increase in the quality of the edited manuscripts to reach its audience accurately. The researchers already under the immense pressure of research will be better off with the help of professional English editing of their manuscripts.  It will only help them to communicate the scientific world successfully of their hard work.