Substantive Editing

The biomedical sciences are complex enough without being presented in foggy language. Don’t leave the editing of your manuscript to your friends, unless they are experts. And don’t expect journal editors to handle these chores either--they don’t have the time. Even the copy editors in most journal offices don’t have the time to do more than correct a few simple errors and make sure that manuscripts conform to the journal’s style.

Remember: Journals reject papers that need a lot of work and publish those that don’t.

At The Medical Editor, we let your words shine.  We will rewrite sentences, eliminate redundancies, restructure paragraphs, condense materials, remove jargon, check your nomenclature and usage, and otherwise ensure that your manuscript clearly and effectively presents its information to your intended audience.

I just wanted to let you know that the paper got accepted in the Journal of American Medical Informatics Association. Thank you for doing such a great job, particularly with eliminating the jargon and making my message come through so much clearer.

AZ, MD PhD MPH
Massachusetts General Hospital

Here is an original paragraph: A convenience sample of competitive school-age club swimmers was recruited from swim teams which were consisted of four club members in Ankara. Of the 104 enrolled swim-team members, 46 swimmers (63.5%) participated in this study. Age- and sex-matched 102 non-sport-involved peers (controls) were selected from surrounding community. Swimmers (41.3% males) and controls (41.2% males) mean ages were 10.9(1.99) years and 10.6(1.98) years (mean(SD)), respectively. To be included in the study, swimmers and controls had to meet these selection criteria: (a) in good health, with no known disease including diabetes, cancer, or heart disease; (b) not currently on a reducing diet, and for controls, not exercising vigorously (less than three moderate to vigorous aerobic sessions longer than 30 minutes a week). Swimmers had trained for 3.6 (1.74) years and the total time spent daily on swim was to average 1.5 (0.49) hours.

And here is the edited paragraph: One hundred four school-aged swimmers were recruited from 4 swim teams in Ankara, Turkey. Of these, 46 swimmers (41.2% male; mean age, 10.9 ± 1.99 years) participated in this study. These swimmers were compared with 102 age- and sex-matched non-sport–involved peers (controls; 41.3% male; mean age, 10.6 ± 1.98 years) from the surrounding community. Inclusion criteria were good health with no known disease including diabetes, cancer, or heart disease; not currently on a reducing diet; and for controls, not exercising vigorously (ie, < 3 moderate to vigorous aerobic sessions longer than 30 minutes each week). Swimmers had trained for a mean of 3.6 ± 1.74 years, and the mean total time spent swimming daily was 1.5 ± 0.49 hours.

Which paragraph would you rather read?