198 ssp seminar05_nolan

Language Polishing: Services to Help Non-Native English-Speaking AuthorsElizabeth Nolan, VP, Sales & Marketing, SPi, Publishing

SolutionsPeopleInnovation

Solutions. People. Innovation.2

• Trends in Submissions

• The Problem – English

• Author Support Services

• SPi’s Solution

Language Polishing:Services to Help Non-Native English-Speaking Authors


Trends in Submissions

• Authors are submitting 2.5 million papers a year for publication in the STM journal of their choice.*

• Increasing submission of articles from overseas.

Annals of Emergency Medicine- 2002 – 33 countries 23%- 2003 – 34 countries 21% - 2004 – 53 countries 33%

*Estimates from Business Case Study



• More papers submitted by non-native English speakers.– Commenting on his experiences with Editorial Manager, Paul Weller,

Publisher, Pharmaceutical Press, said, "Moving to online peer review has been a very rewarding experience and is changing the way we think about our publishing activities. For example, we have seen a substantial increase in the number of manuscripts submitted, especially from Asia, and this creates fertile opportunities for broadening our publishing initiatives.“

• Impact of Open Access—journals will seek more papers from places like Asia.

• US patent applications from Asian countries grew by 759% from ’89 to ’01. 116% growth in applications from the US. (A report from the Task Force on the Future of American Innovation, www.futureofinnovation.org, 2/16/05)



• According to Elsevier, the volume of works authored/co-authored by Chinese scientists in journals indexed by Web of Science have increased by 2000% in the last quarter century.

• In the last 5 years, 11% of the papers published in material science and more than 8% published in math and physics have come from China.

• The proportion of internationally indexed scientific articles from outside North America and Western Europe grew from 25% in ‘83 to 50% in ’03, representing over a million peer-reviewed papers. (Scholarly Communications Report, Vol 8,

No.11, Nov. 2004)


The Problem – English

• Some anecdotal evidence from one of our customers:– A Chinese University consortium shares that their professors produce 5,000

papers per year.– About 2/3 would need re-working due to poor English.

• Recent request on Professional Editing Services web site:“I have a scientific paper already corrected, but one of the reviewers found our English very poor. The scientific editor found this paper full of misspellings that he has not enough time to underline. After corrections, we need a careful reading of our manuscript (3596 words, see attached document) by a native English-speaking people for corrections if any.”


The Problem – English

• Authors need help and struggle to find it.

• Affordability of service is a major issue.

• Publisher’s/Editor’s dilemma—sometimes the value of the paper cannot be judged due to language.

– Reject.– Spend lots of money editing.

• How to help??!!


Author Support Services

• Some solutions emerging.

• Technology, once again, an enabler– language polishing services accessible to the author via the web.

• BUT typically low awareness by author of available services.

• Some publishers trying to help by directing authors to language polishing services via links on their author services sections of their websites.

– JBC www.jbc.org/misc/itoa.shtml

– ASPB www.plantphysiol.org/misc/ifora.shtml



• Service offering is pretty similar for all who offer it. Some offer a bit more, others a bit less. In general, service focuses on:

– Correcting grammar, spelling, and punctuation– Improving clarity and overall readability of author’s manuscript– Providing author with some type of summary of changes made

• Major differences have to do with:– Where editors are physically based– Per page cost to author– Methods of payment – Editors’ areas of expertise



• Sampling of companies in the STM space who provide an online solution include:

UK Based—www.internationalscienceediting.com/

Our portfolio of editors is made up entirely of native English speakers from the British Isles with post-graduate qualifications spanning all the major scientific disciplines.Some authors may only wish to have the paper proofread for grammar and spelling, while others may wish to have their paper edited in terms of improving clarity of expression and overall readability.

US Based—

www.biomeditor.com/www.biosciencewriters.com/www.bostonbioedit.com



• Sampling of companies in the STM space who provide an online solution include:

Asia Pacific Based—

India-based: www.asiascienceediting.com/Japan-based: www.edanzediting.nl/Australia-based: http://www.oleng.com.au/Philippine-based: www.prof-editing.com


SPi’s Solution

• SPi’s solution: www.prof-editing.com.

• Language polishing editors are Asia-based—both in the Philippines and India.

• Dedicated project coordinator assigned to assist each author with all steps in the process once the author has accepted the quote.

• SPi editor works to “polish” the manuscript—correct grammar, delete redundancies, fix problem sentences, and sharpen vocabulary.


• Author is provided with an “Editorial Summary” as part of the service. – Includes a written analysis of all major questions or changes ma de– Accompanies the edited version—shows all track changes– Author ultimately decides whether or not to accept or decline a particular

change made.

• Password-protected tracking system allows authors to check the status of their manuscript at any point in the process.

• Flexible payment terms for authors.– Credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover).– Wire transfers.– Institutional Purchase Orders (POs).

SPi’s Solution


SPi’s Solution

Turn Around Times

• Dependent upon the length of the manuscript.If your document is: We return it within:

Less than 1,000 words 5 business daysLess than 5,000 words 10 business daysLess than 10,000 words 15 business daysOver 10,000 words Turnaround time to be

negotiated


SPi’s Solution

• Service launched in a pilot phase in March 2005, with Elsevier. Started actively promoting in September 2005, and have subsequently gone live with several sites including:

– American Society for Clinical Oncologists. – The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. – The American Society for Plant Biologists. – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. – Elsevier.

• 40% of new manuscripts received each month are from authors who have previously used the service.


SPi’s Solution

• Averaging 385 language-polished pages per month.

• To date, manuscripts that SPi has worked on have come from 32 different countries, including one from the US.

• Majority of authors using the service are from China (29%), Japan (11%), Brazil (8%), and Spain (7%).


The End

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