FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

  • How can I order editing services from SciMeditor?

It is very easy: review which of the three Editing Packages would best meet your needs and then go to the Order Form, complete your details, upload the files you want me to edit, and click SEND. Please ensure that all of the files you wish to send to me have been fully uploaded before you click SEND. Alternatively, you can contact me by email on SciMeditor@gmail.com. An overview of the ordering process is provided HERE. A detailed description of the ordering process is provided HERE.

  • How do I know that you have received my order?

Within 24 hours of you submitting the Order Form or an email to SciMeditor@gmail.com, you will receive an email from me. If I have no questions about your order, the email will ask you to give me the go-ahead via email to start working on your manuscript. 

  • Should I send my figures and tables?

Yes, please! They greatly aid the editing work. If you ordered comprehensive editing, I will also edit them if they are in an editable format and check them closely to make sure they are consistent with the manuscript text that relates to them. Please also send the references because I use them when needed in my highly accurate Reference-based Editing approach. 

  • How will I know when the editing work is completed?

You will receive an email from me with the edited work and the invoice.

  • What about online security and confidentiality?

I fully appreciate how important it is to safeguard your intellectual property. All files that are sent to and from the SciMeditor website are fully encrypted by the website platform Site123, and my computer is protected by Avast Premier and Secureline VPN, so your files are safe with me. I no longer work in a lab and therefore have no conflicts of interest in relation to any work I receive. Moreover, I am the sole editor in SciMeditor: therefore, any work I receive through SciMeditor will only ever be seen by me. Please see the following link for more information. If you would like a special confidentiality agreement, please email me on SciMeditor@gmail.com.  

  • How and when should I pay?

After your work has been edited, I will return it to you with an invoice. You can pay by credit card, bank transfer, or check. The necessary information for paying by all of these methods will be provided in the invoice.  If you wish to pay by credit card, you can also do this from the How to pay page, which will send you to the encrypted PayPal site. Please pay within 30 days of receiving the invoice.

  • Will I receive a payment receipt?

Yes. If you pay by credit card, you will be sent a payment receipt from PayPal. If you pay by bank transfer or check, I will send you a payment receipt by email.

  • What type of work do you edit?

I edit all types of biomedical documents, including journal manuscripts, grant proposals, books, abstracts, letters, cover letters, responses to referees, and rebuttal letters in the research fields of:

  1. Biology (immunology, microbiology, molecular biology, biotechnology, zoology)
  2. Medicine (anesthetics, cardiology, dermatology, diagnostic medicine, ENT, emerging diseases, emergency medicine, endocrinology, gastroenterology, hematology, immunology, intensive care medicine, microbiology, neurology, occupational health, occupational therapy, oncology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, plastic surgery, public health, nephrology, rheumatology, sports medicine, surgery, urology, women's health, veterinary medicine)
  3. Dentistry (orthodontics, prosthodontics, oral & maxillofacial surgery)
  4. Epidemiology
  • What is the Analytical Review Service?

The Analytical Review Service provides an in-depth and detailed critical analysis of your paper. It serves as a before-peer review that picks up the weaknesses in the study report, so that you can address them before the peer reviewers see them. It is written after I have comprehensively edited the paper. It comes in the form of a report where I first check that a long list of criteria are met, including clear explanation of the study rationale, study design, and study limitations. The second part of the report lists the problems that could not be resolved during editing, such as lack of clarity about the key message of the paper, study objectives, and how the study contributes to the field. Key recommendations are provided. See this link for more information. 

  • Do you adhere to biomedical reporting guidelines?

Yes. I edit according to the appropriate guideline and will inform you if any reporting elements are still missing after comprehensive editing.

  • How do I see the changes in my manuscript?

You will receive two files: one that has the manuscript with the changes visible under Track Changes and one with all changes accepted to make the document easier to read. Track Changes is a feature of Microsoft Word and can be found by clicking the Review menu. When Track Changes is activated, all of the editing work in the manuscript is visible, including deletions and insertions. An example is given here. You can accept or reject changes by right clicking on the highlighted text and choosing the appropriate option from the pop-up menu.

  • If I make revisions, will I have to pay to get my manuscript edited again?
  1. If you chose the Basic Editing package for the first edit, you can get a revision edit for 50% of the Basic Edit rate. 
  2. If you chose the Comprehensive Editing package for the first edit, you are eligible for one free re-edit. 
  3. If you chose the Comprehensive PLUS Ongoing Support Until Publication package, you will receive unlimited revisions until your paper has been approved for publication.

An exception to these rules is if the manuscript has been so substantially altered that it bears little resemblance to the original manuscript. In this case, I may deem the work to be a new manuscript and will have to charge usual or discounted rates. Please see the SciMeditor policies page for more information.

  • Do you ensure that the manuscript meets the word count limits that are required by the journal or granting body?
  1. If you select the Basic Editing package, word limits will not be checked during editing. 
  2. If you select the Comprehensive package, I will ensure that the Abstract meets the word count limit. If that requires substantial reduction, I will provide two versions of the fully edited Abstract, one before and one after word count reduction. I will also try to ensure that the manuscript body also meets the word count limit. However, if the word count markedly exceeds the word count limit, further word count reduction becomes risky: I may inadvertently delete important information. Large word count reduction is also very time-consuming. Therefore, in this case, I will inform you that the manuscript body exceeds the word count limit and that I advise you to revise the manuscript to reduce the word count.
  3. If you select the Comprehensive PLUS Ongoing Support Until Submission package, I will ensure that all word count limits are met in the first edit. In cases of substantial reduction, I will explore with you which elements could be deleted or reduced.
  • Can you supply an editing certificate that I can send to the journal?

If I have checked the paper in its entirety and no further changes have been made, I can provide a PDF editing certificate. I do not provide editing certificates for the Basic editing service because this service only provides basic language checks. 

  • Do you check for plagiarism?

I do not routinely check for plagiarism but my Reference-based Editing approach means that I sometimes find sentences that are inadvertently similar to sentences in the cited publications. In this case, I paraphrase the sentences so that the key message is retained but the wording is different. I have never encountered a case of substantial plagiarism but if I did, I would return the paper to the authors asking them to rewrite the section in question. If you have any concerns, you can check your work with a plagiarism detection program, such as those provided by many institutions. Alternatively, you can check by placing individual sentences into Google.

  • Can you advise me about which journal I should send my paper to?

I recommend to use journal finder programs. There are several free programs online. They include the Journal Finder from Elsevier, the Journal Suggester from SpringerNature, and JournalGuide, which gives journal recommendations across publishers. However, if you would like me to provide a journal recommendation report, please indicate this in the Order Form and I will provide you with a quote.