From: <[log in to unmask]> Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 11:12:55 +0200 Dear colleagues. This kind of author service is not new. Nature Publishing Group is offering it since two or three years, at least. By that means NPG is at the gates to pick off the best manuscripts for its own journals; the respective authors will be happy, "competing" publishers may not be pleased. Below I pasted the latest email from them, recieved at 26. July 2013. [May be that my email needs native speaker editing?] Best regards Joachim Meier ################# MACMILLAN SCIENCE COMMUNICATION Scientific Editing Nature-standard editing and advice on your scientific manuscripts MSC's editors can get to the crux of your paper with their detailed edits and incisive comments thanks to their advanced understanding of journal publishing — each paper is assessed by an editor with a PhD and experience of professional editing at a high-impact journal. The service also includes a written report containing: •Constructive feedback and helpful advice •A discussion of the main issues in each section •Journal recommendations tailored to the paper Our editors understand what it takes to get published in high-impact journals. Get them to work on your manuscript today! http://links.ealert.nature.com/ctt?kn=17&ms=NDIxNjM4MTYS1&r=MTc3MDkxMzc0NgS2&b=2&j=MTk2MDUwMzQwS0&mt=1&rt=0 *Nature Publishing Group editorial and publishing decisions are independent of MSC services. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For other enquiries, please contact our customer feedback department mailto:[log in to unmask] Nature Publishing Group | 75 Varick St Fl 9 | New York | NY 10013-1917 | USA Nature Publishing Group's offices: Principal offices: London • New York Worldwide offices: Basingstoke • Boston • Buenos Aires • Delhi • Hong Kong • Madrid • Melbourne • Munich • Paris • San Francisco • Tokyo • Washington DC ################# ____________________________________________________ Dr.-Ing. Joachim E. Meier Head of Library Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) (http://www.ptb.de) PF 3345 38023 Braunschweig GERMANY E-mail: [log in to unmask] ____________________________________________________ Von: LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> Datum: 13.08.2013 14:58 Betreff: Subject: I have seen the future . . . (Edanz) From: Jim O'Donnell <[log in to unmask]> Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 19:18:36 +0800 EDANZ: Heard a presentation today in Singapore at the annual Fiesole Retreat (very strong program here!) about a company called Edanz --- www.edanzediting.com (see also: http://www.casalini.it/retreat/) Their pitch is that they work with scientific journal authors who need help getting published. Their focus is on China and Japan, where they believe there are large numbers of worthy scientists who have inordinate difficulty getting published. These are scholars and scientists and physicians and the like who need help at several levels: editing the English of their articles; identifying appropriate journals to which to submit; interpreting the sometimes curt and cavalier communications of journal editors surrounding peer review; and revising for resubmission. They have a fee schedule, rapid turnaround time (a week for a fairly heavy intervention), and a stable of native-English editors standing by to help you. The presentation was thought-provoking in several ways. The speaker argued that journals should emphasize an author-centric perspective and work hard to deliver a positive experience for authors. He backed this argument with surveys and anecdotes that make clear that peer review is often a hard barrier to climb for the non-English speaker just at the level of figuring out whether this letter from the editor really is an acceptance, a rejection or a revise-and-resubmit letter. And almost anyone could use their find-a-journal service, which they animate by taking a chunk of your text and pattern-matching against many journals to see whose content is most like what you are writing; then they look at impact factor, selectivity, and turnaround time and make recommendations. Several major publishers work with them happily. This was a description of a service that I had never imagined was needed; but on hearing, immediately recognized the appeal. I could imagine such a service run in an exploitative way (the "Famous Writers School" of yore comes to mind), but I can equally imagine one -- and this seems to be Edanz -- genuinely interested in making a living by offering a *real* service. (Another presentation at this very good retreat had figures suggesting that Chinese and Japanese scholars have much more likelihood of having grant money to support publication than US and European scholars do. Spending some of that money fixing up your prose and finding the right journal makes perfect sense.) Jim O'Donnell