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You want to get your manuscript edited before submitting to a journal of your choice. Should you collaborate with freelancers or would it be better to rely on a professional editing service? How do you decide which works the best for you? What are the factors you should consider before making this decision? Read on to get all these questions answered!
How to Choose Between Freelancers and Editing Agencies
Top Professional Academic Editing Services in the US
Freelance Editors
Freelancers offer their editing services by uploading their profiles on multiple marketplaces or freelancing platforms. You will get an idea of their qualifications, experience, and of course the service pricing. Users can browse through this database and identify the best person to work with.
Pros of Freelance Editing
- Freelancers charge reasonably low compared to professional editing agencies. Because they work independently, the pricing is set for the time, effort, and quality of work delivered by an individual.
- You can communicate directly with the person editing your manuscript, which helps you build a comfortable long-term relationship with the freelance editor handling your assignments. Over a period, this relationship can consistently give you the output you expect, meaning the freelance editor understands exactly what you need and how you expect your work to be presented.
- Collaborating with freelancers gives you flexibility to modify your requests midway if the project demands it. This can be especially helpful in the case of a niche or a unique project that needs to be executed for a specific purpose.
Cons of Freelance Editing
- Freelancers aim to maintain high quality to ensure client satisfaction. But say they are overbooked or are simultaneously working on multiple projects. The quality of work may deteriorate. This inconsistency in quality may not be favorable for authors working on deadlines.
- At times, freelancers that you regularly collaborate with and sufficiently trust to share your confidential research with may not be available. Imagine if they had to attend a family emergency or fall sick unexpectedly. Your project gets delayed.
- Manuscript editing is just one part of research publication. Freelancers may be adept at giving you a well-edited manuscript, but you cannot expect them to provide additional related services like journal selection, pre-submission peer review, plagiarism checks, and overall publication support.
Academic Editing Agencies
Professional academic editing companies like Editage are service providers that have a dedicated team focused on easing the research publication process for authors. You can get information on all the services offered, customizable publication packs, and the service charges on their websites.
Pros of Professional Editing Agencies
- Editing agencies come with valuable experience of working in academia. They want to build a trustworthy brand, and editing companies consistently prioritize high quality work to build their brand name. Any expert editor working on your manuscript is pre-vetted. This means that a language expert with experience in your subject area manages your assignment.
- The availability of a vast team of editing experts lets these companies handle large projects on a time crunch. So, if you are looking to publish rapidly in a high-impact journal, your project will be prioritized to give you top-quality support until your paper gets published.
- Editing companies follow a streamlined process. Their end-to-end publication support generally goes beyond manuscript editing and proofreading. Say for example you need a graphical abstract created at the last minute when your journal demands it or you are unsure of which target journal would be best suited for your research. Academic editing companies often cover all these additional publication-related services like graphical abstract creation and journal selection.
Cons of Professional Editing Agencies
- Negotiating on the price may not always be on the table. Editing agencies work on fixed prices and could be more expensive than freelancers because of the overhead costs. Because editing companies work in teams and provide you with complete publication support, you must be open to shell out more money than you would on a freelancer.
- The experience of working one-on-one with the editor may not always be available here. In editing agencies, there’s a team of people with diverse skillset that should coordinate among themselves and with you, the author, to give you the best result. Is that something you would be comfortable with? Or would you rather collaborate with a single freelance editor as it feels more direct and better connected?
But don’t judge too soon! Companies like Editage do offer selective services like one-on-one Q&As with the editor; so give them a chance enquire with your point-of-contact about it.
How to Choose Between Freelancers and Editing Agencies
Both freelance editors and academic editing agencies offer services that are worth exploring. So, how do you decide which one works the best for you and which option would be ideal for your project? Here are a few factors to consider:
1. First, the budget. Always start by setting a budget for yourself. The project can be a PhD dissertation or a research manuscript for journal submission. Think of how much you can afford to spend on getting the assignment professionally edited after all the other research expenses.
If you are on a tight budget and are looking for a one-time help, work with a freelancer. But if you need complete support for publishing your paper, such as selecting the correct target journal, preparing the required files as part of the submission package, formatting figures, and creating other artwork like a graphical abstract, then editing agencies would be more helpful. Yes, they may be more expensive, but you will get reliable publication support.
2. Second, the deadline. Collaborating with freelancers means depending on their availability. Are they able to accept your assignment? Can they deliver before your required deadline? When there’s a time crunch and you are unsure of whether the freelancer will be able to deliver the project on time, go for a good editing agency that guarantees quality work with quick delivery speeds.
3. Next, the project type. This is another factor that can be helpful. A small project that requires brief support for manuscript editing and proofreading could benefit from a freelance editor’s input. But large projects that involve several steps and additional tasks would need a team of experts working on it to make the output submission ready. Editing companies are better equipped than freelance editors to handle such large projects owing to their availability of resources and experience in the field.
4. Finally, your schedule. Working with a freelancer could involve some hand holding as they are likely to reach out to you whenever in doubt. You should have enough time to address their queries.
But if you are a busy researcher who has a ton of other tasks to handle, can you afford to spend all that time worrying about how the manuscript editing is going on? You simply want the expert to understand your expectations after one round of communication. And then you expect them to deliver the completed assignment while you focus on other priority tasks. In this scenario, editing agencies are your answer!
Companies have sufficient experience of working with researchers. So they are less likely to bug you about your requirements midway through the project, and you can coordinate with them only occasionally until you are satisfied with the outcome.
Top Professional Academic Editing Services in the US
Editage
Editage has 22+ years of experience in academic editing. You can get end-to-end publication support, from polishing research papers and targeting the right journals to responding to peer reviewers and post-publication support. In addition to journal papers, they handle all types of documents like theses & dissertations, review papers, case reports, and book manuscripts in various formats (e.g., Word, PDF, and LaTex).
American Journal Experts (AJE)
AJE Editing have PhD-level editors across 400+ subject areas, and their editing packages are structured for journal-specific submissions. You can get high-quality English editing service in for both technical and academic writing from AJE.
Enago
Enago English editing are known for their editors’ expertise in a wide range of subject areas from various disciplines. Their service packages like Copyediting, Substantive Editing, and Top Impact Scientific Editing give authors overall content enhancement and journal revision, especially for SCI journal publication.
Scribendi
Scribendi are a group of expert language editors that provide editing services to research paper authors, book authors, businesses, and students. You can get a well-polished manuscript for logic, readability, and impact with a comprehensive grammar check and improved organization of ideas. They are well-known for their rapid delivery speeds, especially for general editing services.
