Online Manuscript Editing Services for Multilingual Authors: A Content Analysis Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Online writing and editing services can help overcome obstacles faced by researchers seeking publication of their manuscripts. As professional services providers, they have business acumen, experience, and insight about the publishing industry. They supply their editing services for a fee and make additional services available to writers who seek to publish their work. Multilingual authors sometimes face challenges when publishing their research in English language journals. These challenges might have to do with the intricacies of technical writing; or how to find the best journal to submit their manuscript; or even how to explain their datasets in a more visual manner. Writing and editing services help multilingual authors with the creation of a publishable manuscript; give advice about the submission process; and provide other services to enhance the visibility of the published article via social media or other outlets. In this study, the author applied the content analysis method to identify online editing organizations (n = 16) that provide their services to authors. The author then divided these editing organizations into two main categories: seven are commercial publishers and nine are editing companies. It was found that Emerald Publishing Services, a commercial publisher, is the most prominent among the organizations that offer manuscript preparation services, followed by Elsevier, Hindawi, SpringerNature, and Taylor & Francis. As for the online editing companies, the study revealed that Enago has the most service offerings, followed by ManuscriptEdit, Editage, and Sirius Interactive. The study identified 15 distinct editing services offered by these organizations. The results show that the 16 online editing organizations offer four key services: language editing, manuscript formatting, figure preparation, and translation with language. The study recommends that multilingual authors consult editing services to improve the quality of their manuscripts before submitting them to journals.