Scientific editing and translation

ELSS editors delve into the premises, objectives, evidence, reasoning, and assertions of each document to clearly, effectively, and efficiently communicate the author’s intended meaning to the readers. Our editors not only copyedit (correct syntax, grammar and spelling), but also substantively edit, examining the consistency and cogency of the author’s reasoning and conclusions.

ELSS editors balance restraint to preserve the author’s voice with readability to ease the reader’s path to understanding the meaning as intended by the author. Where a change improves readability, we alter the text. Where the author’s intentions are unclear, we suggest alternatives in comments or ask authors to confirm that our changes are consistent with their intentions. Where we cannot understand a passage, we comment to explain what might help readers to understand.
For a long, detailed explanation of what ELSS requires of editors, please see the ELSS Editing Requirements

Only those few selected editors who can meet ELSS’ exacting editing standards and consistently deliver excellent work earn promotion to our roster. The intense selectivity of our vetting process facilitates outstanding editing from a small roster, which means that at unusually busy times, we have to refuse editing requests; to avoid this rare possibility, we highly recommend requesting reservations in advance. Our editors have had formal training in science and many years of editing experience. Many of them have advanced degrees and research careers of their own. Some have published many of their own research papers or authoritative reference works about research writing and editing.
For each document submitted to ELSS for editing, we match the research topic with editors who have relevant expertise and extensive editing experience in that field of research.

After our primary editor has completed his or her work on each document, the paper goes to a second editor for a final check. A fresh second set of eyes will usually pick up a few minor problems no matter how skillful the primary editor. This double check process insures delivery of high-quality editing.

Each document needs to function as a cohesive whole; so, we encourage you to order editing of your entire document, including accessories like tables and figures. Editing the whole helps us see the full context and facilitates outstanding substantive editing. ELSS Editing includes checking for consistency with instructions to authors or other guidelines for the document style and format. The price for editing is based on the number of words to be edited. Answering client questions about delivered edits is free to the extent that it is based on the content in the original document; addition of new content will increase the price based on the number of added words. By default, we exclude the reference list from the word count and do not edit it beyond noting discrepancies between citations and the reference list, but encourage submission of the reference list (and all other parts) for our editors’ information. If editing excludes a portion(s) of the document, then we cannot guarantee thorough substantive editing of the whole document. We provide a certificate of editing for each document in which we have edited the whole.