Levels of editing of a scientific paper | OUPblog (blog)

"There are four key steps to crafting a paper and getting it ready for submission just as there are four levels for editing or reviewing a paper" reports Dawn Field, PhD, author of Biocode: The New Age of Genomics (OUP, 2015).
 

“Creative Writing Editing Library Paper Write Pen” by WokinghamLibraries. 
CC0 via Pixabay.

These steps will help you develop and perfect your idea before it is read. It is just as important to edit your research as it is to copy edit for grammar before turning in your submission.

1. Scientific editing
2. Developmental (or structural) editing
3. Line editing
4. Proof editing

At the highest level comes the determination of the value of the scientific content. From whether the work is targeted at the best journal for the content to whether it works as a ‘publishable’ unit or should be extended or split, this needs input from scientists familiar with the literature of the field. A key feature of a well-written paper is an appropriate reference list, which requires fully understanding the international landscape of the topic...

This article is part of a series covering thoughts on: 1. Packaging your Research for Publication, 2. Learning on the job: The art of Academic Writing, 3. The art of a minimal draft 4. What are you really trying to say? 5. Levels of Editing of a Scientific Paper. 6 Growing your fluency in Scientific English.
Read more... 

Recommended Reading  

 

Biocode
The New Age of Genomics

 

The living world runs on genomic software - what Dawn Field and Neil Davies call the 'biocode' - the sum of all DNA on Earth. In Biocode, they tell the story of a new age of scientific discovery: the growing global effort to read and map the biocode, and what that might mean for the future. The structure of DNA was identified in 1953, and the whole human genome was mapped by 2003...

Source: OUPblog (blog)