If you’ve already written your thesis, you surely know that academic writing can be a very demanding and overwhelming task, especially if you want to send what you’ve written to a scientific journal for publication.
And that’s when academic reviewing comes in: its function is to ensure that the text meets the standards of knowledge production. The proofreading of academic texts, on the other hand, is used to comply with the editorial and style requirements for publication.
If all this sounds like too much for you, don’t worry! In this article, we’ll tell you how reviewing and proofreading academic texts works so you can deliver a flawless manuscript.
Academic Peer Review or Scholarly Peer Review
Academic peer review, also called scholarly peer review, is a process in which unpublished and original texts produced in academic contexts, such as universities, are subjected to an evaluation by experts in the subject matter of the text.
Texts submitted for this assessment may include master’s thesis, PhD thesis, research works, and monographs, among others. Each institution has its own evaluation criteria, which in turn endorse the texts produced there and give them prestige.
Academic peer review can be found both at university level and in the field of communication:
- In the first case, the text is evaluated by academics from the same field, ensuring the quality of its content.
- In the second case, the text is evaluated to determine if it meets the necessary requirements to be published in a certain scientific journal.
Academic Review Process
The reviewing process is part of a larger process: the editing of academic texts for publication in specialized journals, university publications, and scientific papers.
Academic peer review verifies the content validity, the research methodology, the information used, and the conclusions reached. That’s why it’s carried out by peers who are specialists in the field.
The review process is usually as follows:
- Assessment of manuscripts. The text reaches the publication’s editor or editorial team, and they evaluate whether it fits the editorial criteria.
- Peer review. If the text is approved, it moves to peer review. A group of experts judge the content and its value in the field.
- Revisions. Finally, if approved, the text is returned to the author with revisions and suggestions about its content. This process can be repeated several times until the text is ready for publication.
Types of Peer Reviews
There are three classic peer review types that academic publications use to ensure the integrity and rigor of the review process:
- In closed peer reviews, the authors don’t know the identity of the reviewers, but the reviewers do know the identity of the authors.
- In double-blind reviews, neither the reviewers nor the authors are aware of each other’s identities.
- In open identities reviews, both reviewers and authors know who the other is. Sometimes, when it comes to high-profile authors and reviewers, the reviews may be published by the journal or publication.
How Is Academic Review Different From Academic Proofreading?
In principle, both instances are part of the academic editing process, but they are completely different: the academic peer review of your thesis aims to ensure that it meets the most rigorous criteria for scientific knowledge production. In other words, it deals with the content of the text and the subject matter that it addresses.
The proofreader of an academic text is responsible for applying the criteria for submitting a manuscript, which includes applying the publication’s guidelines for citations and references. Proofreading of research articles also deals with ensuring that the grammar, spelling, and syntax are correct so that the manuscript can be assessed by peers during the review. Let’s see what academic proofreading is all about in more detail.
What is Academic Proofreading?
Academic texts are difficult because they have to be rigorous in their content and, at the same time, they have to dialogue with a multitude of other texts of the same discipline, conforming to bibliographic standards and to the requirements of the university or publication where you are interested in publishing.
In this sense, academic proofreading is a fundamental step. It consists of verifying the formal elements of the text to ensure its final quality. This includes orthotypographic and stylistic proofreading. Although proofreaders are not experts in the subject, their job is to make the content more intelligible, to review bibliographic references and to correct citations.
This type of proofreading is important for your thesis because, together with the formal submission requirements, it’s the first assessment criterion to which it will be subjected.
If these requirements seem overwhelming and you need help, let us know. In Palabra we know how to deal with academic texts.
Citation Review: A Headache
If you’ve ever written an academic text, you’ve probably noticed that revising citations is one of the most difficult instances. The academic genre is characterized by dialoguing with other authors and previous texts through a complex system of citations and references: the dreaded APA and Chicago style types of citation.
These systems’ rules are used to standardize references, facilitate reading and simplify bibliography. They are key during the proofreading of a paper, whether it’s going to be published in print or in a digital edition.
- Citations are a set of mentions within the text that correspond to recognized authors of the field. They are used to justify, validate or argue with the content.
- Bibliographic references are standardized systems for listing the references used in the writing of the manuscript, as well as a way of indexing the citations included.
Reviewing the citations included in the text, as well as the bibliographic references used in it, is usually one of the most overwhelming tasks during the writing of a thesis. That’s why at Palabra we offer a reviewing service to help you complete your thesis. Get in touch with us!
Checking APA Bibliographic References
This process consists of applying the APA bibliographic reference system, created by the American Psychological Association, one of the most used in the world. It establishes that citations should be located after the cited text, in parentheses, mentioning the author, the year, and the page number of the original publication.
Checking Chicago Bibliographic References
Similarly, the process consists of applying the citation system created by the University of Chicago. This system has only two possible ways of citing authors: the name, year and page of the original publication are included in parentheses in the same paragraph, and a simplified form with the citation is added as a footnote.
Proofreading Services for Academic Texts
The academic proofreading of your thesis can seem overwhelming. Are you having trouble listing references? You don’t know how to properly cite an author? Are the style guides of the publication difficult to understand?
You’re not alone! It’s a complex task that requires specific skills and experience, especially since each publication has its own criteria and publication rules.
Don’t worry! At Palabra we can help you. Get in touch and we’ll take care of applying the rules, proofreading the text and leaving it ready for academic review.
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