PROOFREADING SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES


Increasingly, researchers in France and other non-English speaking countries write their articles directly in English, the language of international scientific journals. It is rare that an article is accepted by a peer reviewed journal without requests for revisions, sometimes concerning the substance of the article, but more frequently for reasons of poor syntax construction. In 2022, ACCENT EUROPE corrected about a hundred scientific articles intended for publication in highly specialised journals. Each article proofread is accompanied with a proofreading certificate proving that the article has been read and corrected by a native English speaker with good knowledge of scientific language. Indeed, it is not enough to be English or American to translate or proofread scientific articles; scientific English is neither literary nor everyday English. However, it is highly academic.

Proofreading scientific articles demands a great deal of concentration applied to sometimes highly complex texts in order to make them easier and more pleasant to read by the reviewers and final readers. This step is aimed at limiting the number of modifications made downstream and increasing the chances of publication.

The cost of proofreading is negligible in comparison to the total cost of a research project; by contrast non publication of the article describing it means a loss of time, energy and money.

The communication and thus translation or proofreading of an article are essential steps of the research process.

It has now become necessary to make one’s research known as globally as possible.