Recently, the American Chemical Society, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Royal Society Publishing, took part in developing a joint statement regarding their commitment to pursue diversity and inclusivity in academic publishing. This is just one example of how publishers, institutions, and researchers are pushing to create a more inclusive and diverse research community and ensuring that underrepresented individuals can have their viewpoints heard and published.
This push is of the utmost importance, as when international research from people of ALL backgrounds is published and represented. As it fuels discovery, leads to great innovations within various fields, paves the way for a wider accessibility of knowledge, and more. However, while many institutions, publishers, and researchers are pushing for a more diverse landscape, the reality is that there are still many barriers that are preventing this growth. We, at eContent Pro, fully support diversity in academia and to ensure that diversity is not only a concept discussed, but actually practiced, find below how researchers, editors, and publishers can overcome common barriers when adopting inclusive and diverse practices.
At eContent Pro, we do not tolerate discrimination based on age, gender, race, affiliation, religious beliefs, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or country of origin. We are an inclusive company and we continually strive to ensure that our staff, management, editors, and all aspects of the company reflect the highest level of inclusion of experts from all over the world. Our goal is to continue to demonstrate a diverse, inclusive culture that fuels innovation among the communities we serve.
Challenges for Contributors
Non-Native English Researchers
The majority of the publishing industry, especially large publishers, require manuscripts to be in fluent American or European English and follow strict publication guidelines. This can be a challenge for researchers that are not fluent in English, as it causes barriers on how to submit their research, as well as cause difficulties in communicating with publisher and editor(s). As a potential contributor, you need to ensure:
- Your research is delivered in fluent English.
- You understand the various style guides from each publisher.
- You know how to navigate the world of publishing and each publisher’s criteria.
- You can find relevant journals that best fit your research and manuscript.
Additionally, even if a researcher is able to navigate translating their research and writing in English, if there are spelling or grammar mistakes, the research can be seen as less professional and valuable, causing an editor to reject your submission. Through utilizing professional editorial services (like eContent Pro), you can easily navigate these challenges through copyediting, scientific and scholarly review, and journal recommendation services. Through these various services, non-native English speakers, English as a Second Language researchers, and native English speakers, alike are able to ensure that their manuscript is polished and meets all of the publishers’ guidelines, increase their chance of conditional acceptances, and streamline their publishing process.
Challenges for Editors
Working with Non-Native English Language Contributors
As noted above, studies show papers that have not been copy edited are deemed as less professional. One item that causes editors great trepidation is seeing that a manuscript has broken English or flawed grammatical errors. Additionally, if the research lacks clarity it will be often dismissed, leading to the manuscript being more likely rejected. However, this is one of the main challenges many international scholars when submitting research; therefore, if an editor rejects manuscripts based on these points, they can indirectly be limiting true international perspectives from being published in their publication.
For these reasons, it’s absolutely vital that editors encourage their contributors to have their manuscripts professional copyedited and reviewed their submission. Through requiring potential contributors to partner with professional copyediting services or even recommending them to work directly with another research in the field to polish their manuscripts, editors will receive a higher standard of submissions and overcome these barriers. Additionally, it will assist international researchers in expanding their network and save all stakeholders of the publication time during the peer review process and final materials review.
Ensuring that Your Publication Has Diverse Perspectives and Research
Another challenge editors face is ensuring that their content is truly diverse, bringing in perspectives from around the globe. Simply calling a journal “international” is not sufficient. In publishing, diversity is not only based on the race or gender of the researchers and authors, but also includes the countries that researchers conduct their research or are from. It’s important to ensure that not only contributors, but also editors and reviewers come from a varied background of countries from around the world. When editors take the time to do this important task, it also increases the chance of citation impact and indexing potential. It’s critical for editors to know that indices look at diversity potential when evaluating journals.
Challenges for Publishers
In the pursuit of diversity, it is key that publishers make sure that their authors and editors understand the concept as a whole and understand the role of inclusivity within the academic community. Publishers themselves must perform internal evaluations concerning their effectiveness at helping their editors overcoming the many barriers that they face before publication.
One of the ways this can take place is when publishers look at cultural and language barriers present in order to improve communication with editors and contributors. This can be carried out in a number of different ways, including:
- Reaching out to various regions and countries with their Call for Papers and publishing opportunities.
- Making sure the resources are available to communicate with researchers from other countries.
- Publishing research around these topics and provide flexible models to enable researchers and institutions around the world to access this valuable research.
- Making sure their editors have the resources to work with international contributors and international contributors have the resources needed to submit and navigate the publishing process.
Not only is it important for publishers to provide opportunities to international researchers, but it is important that they educate their staff in collaborating with academicians and institutions around the world. This includes understanding the cultural practices, ensure that their staff is reflective of the diversity, and provide direct representation within various regions, to ensure that research that comes from various countries is not dismissed and is at the forefront.
Additionally, it is pinnacle that they offer high-quality service and editorial services that enable international researchers in easing the publishing process, as well as provide resources for editors and publication stakeholders with professional development material in academic publishing and research. This can range from copy editing and proofreading, scientific and scholarly review, translation, and more. This can assist their editors in overcoming the above challenges and streamline contributors’ experience in publishing.
The eContent Pro Academic Discount is applicable on:
- Copyediting and Proofreading
- Scientific & Scholarly Review
- Journal Recommendation
- And more
High-Quality, Professional Editorial Services Are Key
While promoting diversity within research and academia may seem like a daunting task from all levels of the publishing process, there are a number of resources available to authors, editors, and publishers that can help make this effort much more manageable. Prominent among these resources are eContent Pro International’s Editorial Services, including:
Copyediting and Proofreading: This service ensures that manuscripts are polished before they even see their first peer review. Perfecting the grammar and style of a document makes it far less likely that excellent research quickly gets discarded due to common errors. By cleaning up the language of a manuscript, seemingly large barriers are removed and authors from around the globe come one step closer to publication.
Almost all major publishers require your content to be professionally copy edited and proofread before being reviewed and published. An important step before submitting research is to make sure your manuscripts are polished before submission. It’s important for editors to encourage contributors to utilize editorial services to save them time in review. When publishers provide these resources, they take active steps toward promoting diversity and inclusivity within their journals.
eContent Pro’s Copyediting and Proofreading services are competitively priced at as low as $US 0.048/word. Our editors are all native English-speakers with a combined 70 years of experience. They are able to adhere to hundreds of publishers’ guidelines and present all their edits via Microsoft Track Changes. All jobs have expedited turnarounds with as low as one-day returns. With each completed job, authors receive a certificate of completion along with a satisfaction guarantee.
Scientific and Scholarly Editing: Using this service ensures that the research utilized and incorporated into the document is of the highest quality and is communicated clearly. Researchers spend years conducting research and recording findings, so none of them want their data being rejected because there were issues in communicating the findings clearly in English. Utilizing this service saves time and prevents the back and forth process that can occur during review. Scientific editing helps streamline the conversation with editors and publishers, saving time for everyone involved. With the careful evaluation of a PhD-level editor in your field of study, you can be confident that your research is relevant and clear all throughout your manuscript.
eContent Pro’s Scientific and Scholarly Editing services are competitively priced at as low as $US 0.056/word. All reviewers are PhD-level experts in their field with knowledge of over 350 subject-fields, including business, education, medicine, and more. With expedited turnaround times, our editors will assist you in organizing key ideas and concepts in the most comprehensive way to cater your writing to industry professionals.
Journal Recommendation: When polled, 85-90% of notable authors confirmed that their work has been rejected during the publishing process. One of the biggest reasons for this rejection is submitting your manuscript to the wrong journal. With language and cultural barriers in place, it can often be difficult to clearly understand which journals are best suited for your manuscript. Thankfully, you can greatly ease this burden by letting eContent Pro’s professionals take care of the hard work for you. Our expert knowledge of prominent journals in various fields of study ensures that the journals we recommend you will be great matches for the research you’re looking to publish.
eContent Pro’s Journal Recommendation service provides you with a list of five ethically sound and credible journals. These selections are featured in prestigious indices like Web of Science and Scopus, and are Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)-certified. The information provided includes journal history, submission links, metric information, and more. The selections come from our database of more than 2,500 scholarly journals and are all sourced from leading publishers, like IGI Global, Elsevier, Emerald, and more.
By utilizing these services, authors, editors, and publishers can work together to strive for increased diversity and inclusivity in academic research. When vital resources are provided to those who can best use them, we can all take steps in the pursuit of this important and worthwhile cause.
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- Certified, Quality Guarantee
- Expediated Turnaround Time on Each Service as low as One-Day Returns
- Affordable and Competitive Pricing
- Hundreds of Native English Language Editors and Experts
- 350+ Subject-Fields Covered (Business, Education, Medicine, Engineering, and More)
- Thousands of Papers Improved since 2015.
- Privacy protection with editors working strict NDAs.
If you are interested in utilizing eContent Pro Services or are a publisher interested in partnering with us to provide these high-quality services, contact eContent Pro directly at customerservice@econtentpro.com or simply upload your document today.
About eContent Pro: eContent Pro is a U.S.-based, professional editorial and publishing services provider for authors, publishing houses, libraries, organizations, university presses, and societies. Offering professional copy editing, translation, scientific and scholarly editing, journal recommendation, typesetting, figure, chart, table, and equation conversions, as well as other production services, we have provided the highest quality editorial services and content advisement to scholarly outlets and individuals around the world. To learn more about eContent Pro, visit the website here or email customerservice@econtentpro.com.
