Professional Editing: Is It Worth Paying For?

Balancing your budget for your research is tricky, and it’s often necessary to cut down on any unnecessary expense when you’re conducting a study. For example, you have to cut down travel to the minimum and use the cheapest options for any fieldwork. But is professional editing something you can dispense with, especially if your first language isn’t English? Won’t it make sense to just ask an English-speaking friend to give your research paper a check? Here’s why professional editing can be the best option for your journal article.

Professional Editing Saves You Time

Professional academic editors can process your paper in less than half the time you would take to review it, because of their years of experience and expertise in the field. They are already highly familiar with field-specific writing conventions and possess a deep understanding of the tone and style that works for an academic paper. For example, a medical editor often will promptly correct the sentence “The case was discharged at 7 days” because they already are aware that a patient can be discharged, not a case.

Professional Editing Speeds Up the Publication Process

Manuscripts are often rejected from journals at the submission stage itself (i.e., desk rejection) because of language errors. Professional editing can ensure that your paper is free of basic language errors, has an appropriate tone and style, and is clear and readable. That way, you’re less likely to lose time after submission, and your publication journey becomes shorter.

Professional Editing Boosts Your Image

A good editor will not just correct obvious grammatical errors, but also look for ways to enhance the text. They may introduce more sophisticated vocabulary and enhance flow and readability. Take for example the sentence “We gave 1 mg of dexamethasone to 30 patients.” An editor can change it to “We administered 1 mg of dexamethasone to 30 patients”, where “administered” is a more appropriate and specific term than “gave”. When your writing sounds polished and professional, it boosts your image as a researcher.

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Professional Editing Enhances Your Skills

Professional editors are often invested in their clients’ publication success, and are happy to help them write better. A good editor will not just “correct” your paper but also provide suggestions and tips that you can use in future writing projects. Also, such an editor will be available to answer any queries you have about their edits, so that you can learn from the exchange.

But Professional Editing Is Too Expensive? What Can I Do?

Services from a qualified, experienced expert in your field rarely come very cheap. To make room for professional editing services in your budget, you can

1. Budget enough time: Professional editing services typically have higher rates for rush jobs. If you’ve set aside ample time for your manuscript to be edited, you can avail of cheaper rates.
2. Finish revising the manuscript before getting it edited: Send your manuscript for editing once you’ve got all inputs from your co-authors and you all have agreed this is the final version of the paper. Otherwise, you’ll be paying for multiple rounds of editing as your co-authors propose additional changes and revisions to the paper.
3. Get the entire manuscript edited: It sounds counter-intuitive, but excluding the figures, tables, or abstract from editing in order to save money does not work. Those sections are the ones journal editors and peer reviewers tend to pay a lot of attention to, so any errors in them immediately stand out.
4. Talk to your service provider: If you’re running short on funding, talk to your editing service about flexible payment plans or customized editing. Professional editing services who work with academia are often understanding of the budget constraints that researchers face, and can devise creative solutions to fitting into their clients’ budgets.

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Ultimately, skipping professional editing of your paper or having it done by an unqualified person can backfire. A non-expert can end up introducing meaning changes and terminology errors (e.g., by mixing up “incidence” and “prevalence” in an epidemiology paper), which can be time-consuming for you to correct or which can even delay your publication journey.