As a writer, you often put months or even years into composing and researching to get published in an academic journal; understandably, the first thing you want to do is send it off immediately to a publication. However, there will always be a few grammatical and spelling errors no matter your skill level, and they can quickly build up the further you get into your work. While seemingly minor, this general lack of polish can distract the reader from your overall point, possibly even resulting in your work being rejected outright.
At Nova Techset, we understand that having a reliable copyeditor is absolutely vital in academic writing. Reviewing the entirety of your work for the utmost accuracy and clarity, bringing in a copyeditor after you complete the writing process can often be the make-or-break factor to get your article noticed. Copy-editing can truly make your submission look as professional as it would in your head.
But what exactly is copyeditor? With so many different words like “proofreading,” “content editing,” and “substantive editing” thrown around, we understand that it can be very confusing to peg down exactly what to expect out of a copy editor.
To put it simply, copyediting is a careful and deliberate process that generally checks:
- General mechanics like spelling, grammar, and punctuation
- Word choice (any industry jargon or phrases that may need explanation)
- Consistent voice and tone with the rest of your content
- Clarity of the sentences and paragraphs
- General fact-checking of sources and quotes to ensure utmost accuracy
As you can see, that is quite a bit of material to keep track of, especially after you are exhausted from finishing your manuscript. That’s where a copyeditor comes in to reread your article with fresh eyes, catching any errors that you might have missed when focusing on the writing process.
On the off chance that you managed to come out the other end reasonably unscathed without any punctuation or syntax errors, you still have to contend with the possibility of plagiarism or misquoting a subject. Considering that those two mishaps could harm—or flat out destroy—your career more than a few spelling mistakes, it is more often than not the safe bet to have a copy editor on at some point to give your piece a read-over.
For the most part, copyeditor usually work with magazines, publishers, and websites, but are incredibly useful across a wide variety of industries, especially academic publication. While services like Grammarly are useful to pick out obvious errors in real-time, a fully automated end-to-end copyediting system like Nova Techset’s Casper™ is what will end up saving you the most trouble when you want to be published in an academic journal.
An interactive browser-based system, Casper™ will clean up your raw manuscript content, apply any journalistic style to it, and communicate directly with cross-reference sites like PubMed. Additionally, it offers more than 1,000 built-in rules. It is fully customizable to fit the needs of your publication of choice, automatically converting the content to XML so it can be brought into an XML editor like EditGenie™.
With 30 years of combined experience on their team, Nova Techset has worked with over 25 well-known publications like the American Institute of Physics Publishing, and know exactly what edits your journal will need. If you have any queries about our services or wish to know more about Casper™ and EditGenie™, contact us today!
Want to know more about what to look for in a copyeditor or copyediting service? Check back tomorrow for part two as we tell you the necessary skills you will need to find in someone!
