Revisions Policy

Publishing a great research paper is not the work of one person alone. It involves a collaborative effort, between authors, editors, proofreaders, and even peer reviewers to clearly and convincingly express experimental findings and arguments.

Although we believe our editors are some of the most skilled and experienced available, it is not always possible to edit a paper to perfection first time. Sometimes as editors we need to ask questions, clarify meanings, and invite your input as author and researcher. This is why our Standard and Premium services include complimentary rounds of further editing, to allow you to check our changes, give us your feedback, make further amendments and then have these changes checked for mistakes before you submit the paper for review.

Before revising and resubmitting your paper, we kindly ask that you read the below conditions that apply to free re-editing.

Revised text vs. new text

Inevitably, revising a manuscript will involve writing some new text, particularly following review. This risks introducing new errors after editing, so we want to ensure you are given some freedom to write new text and have this checked by our team. To this end, we will edit new text free of charge up to 10% of the editable word count (i.e., excluding references) quoted for in the original paper. Text exceeding this amount will be charged for at the Standard rate.

• This does not include text in documents not edited originally by Bioedit (e.g., replies to the reviewer comments, supplementary information not included with the first manuscript).
• Complimentary editing is granted at Bioedit’s discretion.
• Substantially revised papers with extensive sections of new text can alternatively be re-edited entirely at a discounted rate. This also applies to papers previously edited by our Basic service.
• This service is valid for 1 year following the return of the manuscript’s initial edit.

Revision turnaround time

We treat revised papers as a priority because we know it is important you are able to meet your submission deadlines. Depending on the extent of further work required, we are typically able to return revised work in a few days, subject to our availability; however, because we are not able to guarantee availability in our schedule at any given time, we stipulate a standard 7-day deadline for all revised papers upon our acceptance of the work. The 7-day deadline applies regardless of the initial service speed chosen, although we will take this into account as much as possible when scheduling your work.

Supporting documents

As published researchers themselves, our editors are very familiar with the peer review process. As such, we have considerable experience in editing supporting correspondence documents such as cover letters and replies to peer review comments. It is well advised that any correspondence to the journal is checked carefully to ensure your meaning is clear, and to minimise the risk of misunderstanding on the part of the editor or reviewers. The following conditions apply to the editing of these documents:

• Cover letters and text in reply to the reviewer comments is charged for at the Standard service rate. We do not include text written by the reviewers or editor when issuing a quote.
• Premium service requests include free editing of one cover letter, either with the initial manuscript submission or a revision request. Note that cover letters do not include review rebuttal for the purposes of this policy.
• In rebuttal letters, text quoted from your manuscript will not be included in the quote, as it will be considered separately with your revised manuscript submission. If an accompanying manuscript is not sent, then this quoted text will be charged for at the Standard rate with the replies.

Premium services

Authors submitting papers for our Premium service benefit from a range of additional services, as well as on-going support to help ensure your work gets published. The following conditions apply to the provision of these services:

• Papers submitted for Premium editing are typically first drafts that require the most attention. To enable closer collaboration, we pose no limit on the additional times a revised paper can be sent back to us for free re-editing. This includes re-editing before and after review by the journal, or even following submission to a second journal. However, please note that the above revisions policy still applies, and that complimentary further editing is provided at Bioedit’s discretion. If we feel that a paper has been changed to a point that it no longer closely resembles the original draft edited, then additional work will be charged for at a discounted rate.
• Premium service requests include free editing of one cover letter, either with the initial manuscript submission or a revision request. Note that cover letters do not include review rebuttal for the purposes of this policy.
• Word count reduction, if required, must be requested on the initial submission of the manuscript. This is difficult and labour-intensive work, which involves consultation with the author to prevent important details being omitted. We cannot apply this retrospectively during the revision process.
• If you change the journal you are submitting your paper to, we are prepared to format your manuscript to the new journal’s requirements. Note that this does not include meeting the word count limit, or reference/citation formatting.

Our pledge

The above policies are designed to make it clear to you how we work, thus allowing you to understand the editing process and work with us in producing the highest quality of written research.

We are not interested in charging for additional work unnecessarily; it is far more valuable to us that you see Bioedit as a long-term partner in manuscript preparation. However, our team comprises very highly qualified and experienced editors who we remunerate for their time spent carefully editing your work. We work with a limited number of editors to maintain high standards and close working relationships, and we hope that you understand that as they are researchers, former and active, like yourselves, the extent of complimentary work we can afford to offer is subject to practical constraints.