Author editing

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An authors' editor is a language professional who works "with authors to make draft texts fit for purpose". [1] They edit manuscripts that have been drafted by the author (or authors) but have not yet been submitted to a publisher for publication. [2] This type of editing is called author editing, to distinguish it from other types of editing done for publishers on documents already accepted for publication: an authors' editor works "with (and, commonly, for) an author rather than for a publisher". [3] A term sometimes used synonymously with authors' editor is "manuscript editor" which, however, is less precise as it also refers to editors employed by scholarly journals to edit manuscripts after acceptance (in place of the term copy editor). [4]

Contents

Authors' editors usually work with academic authors, researchers, and scientists writing scholarly journal articles, books and grant proposals. [5] Thus, the authors' editor facilitates the academic writing process by acting before submission or peer review. Authors' editors may also help authors revise manuscripts after peer review, but once the document is accepted for publication the collaboration ends (and other editors, for example, a copy editor or production editor, take over).

The work of authors' editors

An author's collaboration with an authors' editor begins after a manuscript has been drafted. The manuscript must be drafted in the desired publishing language: author editing does not include a translation. The manuscript must be relatively complete, as author editing does not include the tasks of drafting or writing. If authors need help conceiving, structuring or writing their text, then they require the work of a developmental editor, or a writer (e.g. medical writer or technical writer).

The goal of author editing is to help authors produce a clear, accurate, and effective document that meets readers' expectations and that will be favorably received by publishers, journal editors and peer reviewers. [1] [3] Therefore, authors' editors do both linguistic editing and substantive editing (editing of "substance", i.e. content [6] ). They improve format, structure, grammar, style, data presentation, argumentation, flow, and accuracy. They query authors about unclear content, inform and educate authors about good writing techniques (called "didactic editing" [7] ), and engage authors in revising the text (they "elicit revision" [8] ). Rather than simply correct the text, they collaborate with authors by dialoguing with them (through in-text comments, email, phone, internet telephony, etc.) about the content and style; examples of how they annotate texts and negotiate the acceptability of the language have been given in an essay by Burrough-Boenisch. [3] Authors' editors may also advise authors on peer review and the publishing process, [1] [2] and high-impact publishing strategies. [9]

When authors receive the revised manuscript, they usually must dedicate substantial time and effort to reviewing the editor's changes and queries. [1] They may discuss the work with the editor, to learn why certain changes were made, and to resolve issues that were raised during editing. After they have revised the text, they may resubmit it to the editor for an additional round of editing (if the fee agreement so permits) or finalize it on their own.

Author editing and authors' writing skills

The authors' editor is an optional figure in the publishing process. Authors are more likely to hire an authors' editor when they are not fluent in the language in which they wish to publish: this is particularly the case for non-anglophone academics and scientists who publish their research in English for international communication. Another reason for working with an authors' editor regards the author's writing skills, as some scientists and clinicians may face difficulties composing an adequate text in a reasonable amount of time despite being excellent researchers.

Skilled writers will not need to hire such an editor, instead finding sufficient the feedback of colleagues (prior to submitting a manuscript) and peer reviewers (after submission). Nonetheless, even skilled writers may benefit from author editing, especially when they are short of time and have ambitious publishing goals. In fact, since these editors can save researchers time, help them improve their writing, and maximize their chances of publication success, when a regular collaboration is established, authors' editors can become trusted allies of research teams. [10]

Less skilled writers who are aware that editing will improve their manuscripts (or have been told to seek editing by a journal or publisher) also may not go to an authors' editor, but instead may use one of the many specialized editing firms (for convenience, greater availability, possibly lower costs). However, these firms, for their global nature, do not always permit the establishment of the collaborative relationship between editor and author-clients which is necessary for true author editing. Finally, novice writers may not realize how they can benefit by presubmission author editing; by submitting unedited manuscripts, they may find themselves in a situation of multiple rejections. [11]

Origins

Although the term "authors' editor" is little known, even by persons whose work could accurately be called author editing, it is not new but has been in use at least since the 1970s. [12] The roots of this profession seem to lie in the arena of medical editing in the United States. The first known use of the term to describe an editor working in the research setting dates to 1968, in an essay by Mayo Clinic editor Bernard Forscher. [13] In 1973, an article entitled "The author's editor" by L.B. Applewhite [14] was published in the first volume of the journal Medical Communications of the American Medical Writers Association. In 1974, an essay by Barbara G. Cox with the same title [15] was published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings . In the early 1980s, the Council of Biology Editors (now the Council of Science Editors) began to define and discuss the role of authors' editors, through a seminal paper by Martha M. Tacker [16] followed by a national survey of 100 scientific authors' editors, [17] both published in the journal CBE Views (now Science Editor). The survey sparked an editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal . [18] These early papers used the term "author's editor" (with author in singular) but today, when academic papers usually have multiple authors, the pluralized term "authors' editor" is becoming standard usage.

The term "authors' editor" seems to have its roots in American literary publishing. [12] It was used in 1953, in the title of a Doctor of Education thesis, to describe Maxwell Perkins, a literary editor who helped shape American literature in the first half of the twentieth century. [19] The earliest use of the term in print is attributed to US novelist George Washington Cable in a 1910 tribute to his editor Richard Watson Gilder. [12]

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scientific journal</span> Periodical journal publishing scientific research

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copy editing</span> Improving the formatting, style, and accuracy of text

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Scholarly peer review or academic peer review is the process of having a draft version of a researcher's methods and findings reviewed by experts in the same field. Peer review is widely used for helping the academic publisher decide whether the work should be accepted, considered acceptable with revisions, or rejected for official publication in an academic journal, a monograph or in the proceedings of an academic conference. If the identities of authors are not revealed to each other, the procedure is called dual-anonymous peer review.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Developmental editing</span> Writing support during manuscript production

Developmental editing is a form of writing support that comes into play before or during the production of a publishable manuscript, in fiction, non-fiction, and academic writing. As explained by Scott Norton in his book Developmental editing: a handbook for freelancers, authors, and publishers, developmental editing involves "significant structuring or restructuring of a manuscript's discourse". Developmental editors are a type of language professional.

Language professionals are individuals who support authors in publishing by helping produce documents of appropriate scope and quality. Their role is particularly important in the research setting, especially when the authors are not native English speakers but are required to publish in English for international communication. The work of language professionals falls within the language industry.

Mediterranean Editors and Translators (MET) is a non-profit, interdisciplinary association for language professionals who work mainly with or into English within the Mediterranean area. The association's members include translators, authors' editors, copy editors, writing and presentation coaches, teachers of academic writing, applied linguists, interpreters, professional writers and more. MET offers training workshops, an annual conference, networking and other opportunities of continuing professional development for its members. The activities of the association are guided by six objectives, summarized as follows:

  1. Maintain a stable network and means to hold events for English language consultants
  2. Communicate knowledge that can contribute to improving the quality of language support services available in the Mediterranean
  3. Be a conduit for exchanging information between language consultants in our geographic area and those in other parts of Europe and the world
  4. Stimulate research in Mediterranean communities on the needs of academics, scientists and others and on promising practices that meet their needs well
  5. Identify local expertise in language support and help our experts share their knowledge with a wider audience
  6. Help users of language support services locate appropriate solutions to their needs and promote mutual understanding between suppliers and users of these services

A manuscript is the work that an author submits to a publisher, editor, or producer for publication. Especially in academic publishing, manuscript can also refer to an accepted document, reviewed but not yet in a final format, distributed in advance as a preprint.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Burrough-Boenisch, Joy; Matarese, Valerie (2013). "The authors' editor: working with authors to make drafts fit for purpose. In: Matarese, V. (ed)". Supporting Research Writing: Roles and challenges in multilingual settings. Oxford: Chandos. pp. 173–189. ISBN   978-1843346661.
  2. 1 2 Shashok, Karen (2001). "Author's editors: facilitators of science information transfer". Learned Publishing. 14 (2): 113–121. doi: 10.1087/095315101300059495 .
  3. 1 2 3 Burrough-Boenisch, Joy (2008). "Negotiable acceptability: reflections on the interactions between language professionals in Europe and NNS scientists wishing to publish in English". Language Planning and Policy: Language Planning in Local Contexts. 7 (1): 255. doi:10.21832/9781847690647-018. ISBN   9781847690630 . Retrieved 9 March 2013.
  4. ↑ Iverson, Cheryl (2004). ""Copy editor" vs. "manuscript editor" vs...: venturing onto the minefield of titles" (PDF). Science Editor. 27 (2): 39–41. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  5. ↑ Kanel, Shauna; Gastel, Barbara (2008). "Careers in science editing: an overview to use and share" (PDF). Science Editor. 31 (1): 18–22. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  6. ↑ Kanter, Steven; Bradford, Albert (17 August 2012). "The importance of substantive editing". Society for Scholarly Publishing. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  7. ↑ Burrough-Boenisch, Joy (2013). Didactic editing: bringing novice writers into the arena of scholarly publishing. In: Matarese, V. (ed) Supporting Research Writing: Roles and challenges in multilingual settings. Oxford: Chandos. pp. 207–220. ISBN   978-1-84334-666-1.
  8. ↑ Kerans, Mary Ellen (2010). "Eliciting revision: an approach for non-authors participating at the boundaries of scientific writing, editing and advising" (PDF). The Write Stuff. 19 (1): 39–42. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  9. ↑ Matarese, Valerie (2010). "Emerging concepts in high-impact publishing: insights from the First Brazilian Colloquium on High Impact Research and Publishing" (PDF). Ann Ist Super Sanità. 46 (4): 451–455. doi:10.4415/ANN_10_04_14. PMID   21169678 . Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  10. ↑ Matarese, Valerie (14 January 2013). "Good language is vital to research communication". Research Information. Retrieved 15 February 2013.
  11. ↑ Matarese, Valerie (2011). "Multiple rejections: role of the writing process". Lancet. 378 (9799): 1296. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61574-2 . PMID   21982096. S2CID   31801582.
  12. 1 2 3 Matarese, Valerie (2016). Editing Research: The Author Editing Approach to Providing Effective Support to Writers of Research Papers. Information Today. pp. 53–56. ISBN   978-1-57387-531-8 . Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  13. ↑ Forscher, Bernard (1968). "Principles of manuscript editing". Bulletin of the American Medical Writers Association. 18: 1–5.
  14. ↑ Applewhite, LB (1973). "The author's editor". Medical Communications. 1: 16–20.
  15. ↑ Cox, Barbara G (1974). "The author's editor". Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 49 (5): 314–317. PMID   4829262 . Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  16. ↑ Tacker, Martha M (1980). "Author's editors: catalysts of scientific publishing" (PDF). CBE Views. 3: 3–11. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 February 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2017.
  17. ↑ Gilbert, JR; Wright, CN; Amberson, JI; Thompson, AL (1984). "Profile of the author's editor: findings from a national survey". CBE Views. 7 (1): 4–10.
  18. ↑ Morgan, Peter P (1984). "What does an author's editor do?". Canadian Medical Association Journal. 131 (1): 8. PMC   1483340 . PMID   20314387.
  19. ↑ Robillard, Ambolena Hooker (1953). Maxwell Evarts Perkins, the authors' editor, a study of a climate for creativity. University of Florida.
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