How we decide editing fees

Edanz’s two levels of editing

Every manuscript Edanz edits, regardless of the starting quality, is brought to an English level acceptable for submission to an international journal. After a manuscript has been edited, Edanz will assess the amount of editing work that was required to bring the manuscript to this level.

Explanations of the two levels of editing Edanz uses to assess editing fees with TrackedCopy example excerpts of each level are shown below in the detailed explanations. Note that there may be elements of both editing levels in a single manuscript. We take the overriding or average level into account when assessing the fees.

Copyediting

Copyediting is the level of editing that requires the least amount of editing work. These manuscripts are, for the most part, structurally sound with most content in the correct place. The manuscript is generally clear and easy to understand, but editing for grammar, punctuation, word usage, and spelling still needs to be done to make the manuscript ‘readable’ and acceptable for submission to peer review. These manuscripts may also need a small amount of editing to conform to journal requirements. Some commenting may be necessary to raise points with the author or to ask questions about unclear sentences. A majority (90%) of the manuscripts we edit are assessed at the copyedit level.

Engineering Sample Edit - TrackedCopy

Notes: The above excerpt is a “light” example of a Copyedit; some manuscripts need to be more heavily edited but are still at the copyedit level.
The following excerpt is from a “heavier” Copyedit manuscript:

Substantive editing

Substantive Editing requires the most amount of editing work to bring the text to an English level acceptable for submission to peer review. Substantive level manuscripts need editing for grammar, structure, journal requirements, conciseness and general readability. Substantive manuscripts will have several comments regarding unclear sentences that will usually need to be further revised after the comments are responded to by the author. Only about 10% of manuscripts are so unclearly written that they require a full Substantive edit.
Comment from the above sample

How we assess fees

If the Edanz staff or the manuscripts editor thinks that a manuscript took more work than is normally required for copyediting, the manuscript is referred to the Chief editor for an assessment of the correct fee. Our experience shows that 90% of all manuscripts are copyedited, with just 10% being Substantive.

For a fuller explanation of our editing levels click here

Editing Level Frequency Editing Levels

Approximately 90% of the manuscripts we edit are Copyedit level after editing.

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