What Will the Copyeditor Do?

Greetings again. I hope that all is going well for you.

Imagine the following: You submitted a paper to a journal. The paper has now received peer review, and you’ve made the requested revisions. The editor has accepted the paper. (Hurray!) Typically, the journal will now have a copyeditor edit the paper. What will the copyeditor do? And how can you help?

The copyeditor (also called a subeditor) will make sure that the grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word usage are correct. He or she also will ensure that references and other items comply with the journal’s style.

In addition, the copyeditor will check whether anything seems to be missing or inconsistent. The copyeditor also might make the writing more readable. For instance, he or she might increase conciseness or improve sentence structure.

When copyeditors need more information from authors, they write queries (questions). For example, the copyeditor may pose a query

• if part of a reference is missing,
• if numbers in a table and the text do not match, or
• if wording in a sentence seems unclear.

Generally, you’ll receive any queries along with an edited copy of the article to check. To be most helpful (and to avoid publication delays), promptly review the manuscript and answer the queries. If any of the copyeditor’s revisions are unacceptable, for example because they change the meaning, politely propose other wording.

Book manuscripts also receive such copyediting. By helping to ensure that our writing is clear, correct, concise, and consistent, copyeditors help us to communicate with our readers. Also, by polishing our writing—and by helping us to avoid embarrassing errors—they help us to look good. I appreciate what copyeditors contribute.

Until the next post—

Barbara