Effects of providing manuscript editing through a combination of in-house and external editing services in an academic hospital

Abstract

Background English editing services are effective for improving manuscript quality as well as providing learning opportunities for non-native English-speaking authors. Herein, we describe the effects of a combined system of in-house and external editing services for handling large volumes of editing requests and providing personalized editing service in academic hospitals. Methods We established the Scientific Publications Team (SPT), an in-house editing team in Asan Medical Center in Seoul, Korea. The SPT is composed of two professional editors who manage editing requests sent to external companies while also providing one-on-one in-house editing services. We gathered author satisfaction data from 936 surveys between July 2017 and December 2018 and analyzed the number of editing requests and research publications by segmented regression analysis of interrupted time series data. Results The SPT processed 3931 editing requests in 2017–2018, which was a marked increase compared with prior to its establishment ( P = 0.0097). The authors were generally satisfied with the quality of editing services from both in-house and external editors. Upon conducting regular quality control, overall author satisfaction with one external company gradually increased over the course of one year ( P for trend = 0.086). Author satisfaction survey results revealed that overall satisfaction of editing service was most strongly correlated with how well the edits conformed to the authors’ intentions (R = 0.796), and was only weakly correlated with quick turnaround time (R = 0.355). We also observed a significant increase in the trend of the number of research publications ( P = 0.0007) at one year after the establishment of the SPT. Conclusion Providing a combination of in-house and external editing services resulted in high author satisfaction and subsequent hospital-wide increases in manuscript writing and publication. Our model system may be adapted in academic hospitals to better address the editing needs of non-native English-speaking researchers.

English as the language of research: But are we missing the mark?

“…Forming an in-house editing team has also proven to increase manuscript writing and publication. 7 Research committees within an organization could conduct training programs to improve manuscript writing skills of practitioners who have special interest in research. Alternatively, non-native English speaking authors could look for opportunities for research collaboration with English speaking authors in an effort to produce high quality research articles.…”

Is the English language a barrier to the non-English-speaking authors in academic publishing?

“…A combined system of in-house and external editing services in academic institutes can lead to supporting an author and subsequent hospital-wide rise in manuscript writing and publication. 8…”

Other Voices: International Manuscripts Published in The Family Journal: Calling for a Mentor

“…Ideally, an editorial board member would serve as an associate editor to recommend resources and provide consultation. Lim et al (2019) described the benefits of using in-house and external editorial services to improve acceptance rates among manuscripts generated in a large teaching hospital. It is also important to correspond with international authors to understand nuanced concepts and figures of speech that arise from translation of native language into English.…”