[Open-access] unbundling editorial services in publishing

[Douglas Carnall]

I know that list members are interested in the value that publishing
houses claim to add with their manuscript editing services.

In trying to help assess this, I have pointed out that manuscripts
vary greatly: the considered work of a research group in an
English-speaking country would usually require only the lightest of
editorial touches for typesetting markup and house style. But
researchers for whom English is a second language may require labour
intensive rewriting before they get anywhere near the "proofreading"
that is usually their initial request. Undoubtedly the most economical
course in the world of the subscription journal was merely to reject
poorly written work out of hand.

Some links:
A Scholarly Kitchen blogpost, which though typically biased against a
perceived threat to the established order (in this case an editing
service called AJE), nevertheless succeeds in attracting an
interesting below the line discussion by freelance editors actually
involved in the activity, with price info:
http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2011/02/15/editors-for-hire/

The PLoS approach was to refer such authors to third party services
(e.g. scroll down to section 7 here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110723194944/http://www.plosone.org/static/guidelines.action).
Interestingly this list has now disappeared from the current
incarnation of the page: presumably (see the comments in the first
reference) these PLoS referrals are now to be bought dear by some grim
corporate mill that

[squeezes the very lifeblood out of their editors until they find a
job in a bar]*
[offers editorial services in a timely and cost-effective manner]*

*Delete one according to neoliberal preference

I've written a note to PLoS to find out more. I'll let you know if I
get a response.

Regards to all,

D.
-- 
Douglas Carnall
dougie.carnall at gmail.com

http://cabinetbeezer.info

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