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How We Handle Your Work 

When we edit your manuscript, we try to maintain the exact meaning of your original writing, while at the same time optimizing the grammar and spelling of the submitted text. Please check our suggested revisions carefully to make sure that they do not change your intended meaning. English can be a very imprecise language and our modifications are generally intended to ensure correct grammar and spelling and at the same time to make sure that there is only one possible (and correct) meaning of your text as written. Please feel free to contact us if you would like a more complete explanation for any of our suggested revisions.

If you have provided us with a file of your manuscript for correction, we will make our suggested changes to that file using the Microsoft Word ‘Tracking System”. This allows all changes we make to your manuscript to be printed out, or to be hidden if you prefer. We usually have our computer set up to ‘double-underline” any newly inserted text, but to hide any deleted text (since displaying the deleted text makes it very hard to read the manuscript). However, the deleted text can probably be displayed on your computer if you change the options on the tracking system (in Word, this is on the ‘Tools’ menu). Any line in which there was an insertion or deletion (even as little as a space), will be shown with a vertical mark ( | ) in the right margin for easy identification.

When we return the manuscript to you by Email or on a floppy disk, we generally send it in Word 95 format; if you can read Microsoft Word formats (files with a suffix of ‘.doc’) that is generally the best that will retain all formatting. If you are unable to read the Word file, we will send you the file (upon request) in Rich Text Format (files with a suffix of ‘.rtf’) which also retains all formatting. If you are unable to read either of those types of files, let us know which word processing program you use (IBM or MAC) and we can generally provide you with the correct format. Files with a suffix of ‘.txt’ are usually readable by all programs, but will have lost all formatting, as well as special characters such as Greek letters or symbols.

We also usually return your manuscript in 2 different ways; one file labeled 'revised’ (which has all the changes shown in the file) and the other file labeled ‘final’ (which has only our final suggested wording listed).

If you receive the files by Email, please check your manuscript for all symbols (such as Greek letters, a b g, degree signs ° and plus-minus signs ±, etc) and for all formatting (such as italics, ^superscripts and _subscripts) to make sure they have been converted correctly. In our experience, Eudora Pro is the most reliable and universally available program that does an excellent job of reading attached files. Please contact us if you have any questions about the file transfers and good luck in getting your manuscript accepted for publication.