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Questions and answers
Q1
I'm in biomedical research, on a low grant, and I
need to publish my paper in English: how can I reduce my
translation costs?
Select your target
journal and ensure that your manuscript complies scrupulously not
only with all its instructions to authors, but also with its
typological conventions (e.g. P, P, p or p, etc).
Format your
document using basic word-processing commands (Page Setup, Styles,
Paragraph Keep With Next, Bullets & Numbering, etc). This avoids
the translator having to spend a couple of hours at your expense
reformatting your document before he or she can work within it.
Check your list of
references from source and include it in your manuscript. Fax the
full text of any reference on which your manuscript relies
heavily, especially if it has not appeared in a readily accessible
journal from a readily accessible year.
Include all
figures and tables: these can help resolve queries.
Write your
manuscript in English if you feel comfortable expressing your
thoughts in the language. This may enable us to select a named
non-linguist editor, possibly from your own field, who might
provide useful pre-referee input. If your English is good,
requiring minimal correction, your costs will be substantially
reduced and we will be able to turn your document around more
quickly. Be warned, however, that texts in not-so-good English can
take as long to revise as - and even longer than - translating
from scratch.
If submitting your
paper in English, or if requesting editing in addition to
translation (‘trans editing’), agree a budget with us. Manuscript
revision is notoriously time-consuming, indeed potentially
limitless. Even native speakers working in their own specialty
produce a dozen drafts before getting their paper right. No such
luxury is possible in this case, on either our side or yours: 8
hours are probably adequate for essential revision on an
average-length paper.
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