Scientific Editing vs Language Editing
Categories Scientific Communication

How is Scientific Editing Different from Language Editing?

With a plethora of scientific editing services, you might wonder “What is scientific editing?”

As the name suggests, it is the editing of the scientific documents like research papers and medical manuscripts.

Majority of you hold an opinion that scientific editing means to correct the language errors in your research paper. Once you rectify the spelling mistakes, grammar, vocabulary, and punctuation errors in your research paper, you are done.

But, what if we tell you are wrong? If you think scientific editing is just correcting the language errors in your research paper, you are mistaken.

If you correct only the language errors in your research paper, it is only a part and is referred to as the language editing. Language editing ensures that your written text is grammatically correct. However, scientific editing goes a step further to improve the logic of the written text, sharpen your arguments, and remove any lapses in reasoning.

Scientific editing improves your research paper in a way that communicates your ideas clearly and transparently to your target audience, making them understand your thoughts well.

So, how does scientific editing helps your research paper?

Scientific editing:

  • Clarifies the purpose of your research paper to the target audience
  • Removes the language errors
  • Improves the way you organise the information in the text
  • Checks the accuracy of the reported facts
  • Makes your paper easy and interesting to read

With so many benefits in hand, are you still stuck with only language editing of your paper? Think again!

How to Optimize your Medical Research Manuscript for Search Engine
Categories Scientific Communication

Medical Manuscript Writing – How to Write Search Engine Friendly Article?

Many journals now publish their articles online to increase their reach amongst the masses. A major part of their traffic comes from Google and other search engines. In such a scenario, you don’t have to write a medical manuscript favourable to the journal, but also to the search engines. The journals that publish the articles ensure their research content is visible and ranks high in the search results of Google and other engines. However, you can play your role by optimizing your medical research paper for the search engines, by helping people to find, read, and cite your work.

So, here are five tips to increase the discoverability of your medical article in the search engines.

1) Create a search engine friendly title

Till now, we have recommended writing a title that immediately tells the readers what your study is about. However, you should also optimise the title for search engines.

  • Include 1-2 keywords related to your topic. Place your keywords within the first 65 characters of your title.
  • Keep your title short, not exceeding 65 characters including spaces
  • Avoid using stop words in the title like a, an, the, am, is, can, and, but, or, if, then, etc.

2) Optimize the abstract of the manuscript

A good abstract is 150-200 words long, is well-structured, has a simple language, and reflects the key points and findings of your research. But, what if you have to write an abstract for the search engines as well?

  • Search engines normally display the first two sentences of your abstract. So, place all your important findings and keywords in the first two sentences of the abstract.
  • Use the keywords in your abstract, but don’t stuff them to make things complex. After all, the purpose of your abstract is to express the key points of your research in a clear and concise manner.

3) Use the keywords throughout your article

Besides the title and the abstract, use your keywords in the entire article as:

  • In your headings: Headings signal the search engines about the structure and content of your medical article, thus, increasing your rankings
  • Use keyword search tools like Google Trends and Google Adwords to search for the specific keywords
  • Check the keywords which other authors in your field use in their paper. Incorporate such keywords in your article
  • Use your keywords with caution. Let them flow naturally in your writing. Search engines hate too much keyword repetition or keyword stuffing and may penalize your article. This makes it difficult for the readers to find your article online

4) Be consistent

Maintain consistency throughout your paper regarding the spellings, language used, references, or author names.

5) Build links to your article

  • Promote your research on your social media channels and institutional sites by linking to your article. More the number of inbound links to your article, higher its value amongst the search engines.
  • Ask your colleagues to link to your article. Higher the number of links your article gets from the respected individuals/trusted sites, the more powerful will be its effect. However, don’t forget to return their favour by doing the same for their medical articles.

To increase the search engine visibility of your research paper, contact our medical article writing service expert.

Constructing Figures in your Scientific Paper
Categories Scientific Communication

Dos and Don’ts for Constructing Figures in your Scientific Paper

Figures are an essential part of your scientific paper writing. However, they may lose their significance if not constructed properly.

Even one ill-constructed figure can lead to the rejection of your paper by the journal editor. So, besides the written text, figures demand an equal attention from you.

Here is the list of dos and don’ts for constructing effective figures in your scientific paper:

Do’s

  • Include a succinct legend to describe the figure. The legend should be written below the figure to provide sufficient information to the reader so that he doesn’t have to refer the text for it
  • Provide each axis of the graph with a brief and informative title including the units of measurement
  • Construct the figure with a reasonable space on all its four sides

Don’ts

  • Don’t include figures that are not referred to in the text
  • Don’t use figures to demonstrate information that can be written in a sentence or two
  • Don’t extend the axes of the graph very far beyond the range of the data
  • Don’t use color in the figures unless absolutely necessary

Following these tips while constructing your figures in the scientific paper will raise your chances of acceptance.

Rejection of a Manuscript
Categories Scientific Communication

5 Common Errors that Lead to the Rejection of a Manuscript

You have written your research manuscript with diligence, and now, you are ready to submit it for publication. You are worried if it gets rejected.

This is common with novice research scientists. However, if you know what makes the journal editors reject your manuscript, you can take care of such errors before submission.

So, here’s a glimpse of the common errors that can lead to the rejection of your manuscript:

1) Selection of a wrong journal

The foremost reason your manuscript gets rejected is that your research study doesn’t fit the scope of your selected journal. So, you will waste your valuable time if you select a journal out of your paper’s scope.

To avoid any mistake in selecting the right journal for your paper:

  • Carefully read the scope of the journal on its Homepage and also the section on “Instructions to Authors”.
  • Search for the similar articles in the journal.

 2) Plagiarism

Plagiarism is an act of presenting other’s work as your own. It is a serious offence in the research paper writing. Journal editors are not fools. With a plethora of plagiarism detectors, it’s easy to recognise plagiarised content in your paper.

Even self-plagiarism or reproducing your own work in another journal without citing the original can lead to the rejection of your manuscript.

Therefore, you should:

  • Always acknowledge your sources of reference
  • Not submit the results of a published literature even in a lower-ranked journal
  • Change the text copied from another source to make it different and also acknowledge the source.

3) Insignificant or false findings in the research results

The journals accept only those manuscripts that present an original research study, those which report high-quality and novel work and make significant contributions to their desired field.

Thus, if your manuscript fails to meet this criterion, or it reports a routine or trivial or false finding which doesn’t contribute significantly to the progress of Science, it will be outwardly rejected.

To avoid rejection:

  • Search the published literature related to your research topic and see their results.
  • Publish only those findings which are new or significant to your field of research.
  • Highlight the novel properties of your research study
  • Compare your article with the previous work in the field and justify your improvements with a clear statement

4) Technical errors

With one or two technical flaws, you will receive a request for revision. However, rejection occurs if it contains many technical flaws such as:

  • Discrepancy between the Abstract and the remaining manuscript
  • Study of the wrong groups
  • Wrong statistics
  • Clinically insignificant results
  • Absence of a relation between the results and their discussion
  • Contradictory/false data
  • If the conclusion doesn’t answer the research question
  • Poor use of language with grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors

There lies the importance of proofreading and editing your manuscript before you submit it to the journal.

5) Failure to follow “Instructions for Authors”

If you do not follow the “Instructions for Authors” prescribed by a specific journal, it will either delay the peer review process or lead to your manuscript rejection. So, you should always:

  • Carefully read the instructions a number of times. Best, take a print out of the journal guidelines and highlight the key instructions you have to follow.
  • Before submission, check whether you have incorporated all the instructions in your writing.
  • If you do not understand the instructions or are short of time, take help from a professional scientific editor.

Last, but not the least. Do not hurry to submit your paper to the journal publication. Take time and carefully check if you have fulfilled all the requirements as an author.

Medical Editing Service
Categories Scientific Communication

5 Things to do Before Sending the Manuscript to the Medical Editing Service

To publish their research in an international peer-reviewed journal is every researcher’s dream. However, only a few manuscripts submitted to the journal make their way to the publication; rest get rejected. So, to make your place in those few accepted manuscripts, you must make a positive impression upon the journal editors and peer reviewers.

How?

Here’s the deal:

Submit your manuscript to the medical editing services company. It will help you prepare a polished and publication-ready manuscript and communicate your research ideas clearly and effectively.

However, before you submit your manuscript, go through the list of 5 things you must do:

1) Write the manuscript title yourself

The title of a manuscript is the most significant part of the research paper, but also the most difficult to write. That’ the reason authors leave this task on the medical editing service provider. However, as an author, you must write the title yourself, though you can take the help of the medical editor to improve it. In the title, tell the readers what your paper is about and why your study is significant.

2) Write your own abstract

The abstract of your manuscript is the first impression upon the readers. If it is impressive, a reader will read the entire manuscript. However, if you devote less time to prepare the abstract or leave it on the medical editor, you are wrong. A professional medical editor can help to refine the abstract and meet the desired word limit, but it is not his job to write it on your behalf. If you submit your manuscript with a clear written abstract, the medical editor will do his job better.

3) Format the structure of your manuscript 

Poor structure is one of the top reasons for the manuscript rejection. Before you write your manuscript, outline the sections and the flow of information within them. If you present your ideas in a structured manner, it will be easier for the medical editor to understand your intent and elevate your manuscript to a new level.

4) Ensure the accuracy of data 

Collecting data from various resources is an inherent part of scientific research. The research manuscripts include data in the form of tables, figures, graphs, or other statistics. Before you submit your manuscript to a medical editing companies, make sure your data is accurate and complete.

5) Proofread your manuscript

Read through your manuscript several times and fix all the spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, extra spaces, and other language mistakes. Make sure all the fonts are consistent and also check your references/citations.  This exercise ensures the medical editor spends quality time on your manuscript and not on typing errors.

To develop an effective manuscript that the journals accept is challenging.  A medical editor helps you to overcome this challenge, improves the quality of your manuscript, and increases your chances of acceptance. However, send the best copy of your manuscript to the medical editor so that it receives the attention it deserves.