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Question: Why is hiring an editor and proofreader not an option? It’s a well trodden path to making sure your written text is readable used by professional writ

• j7ake 6y ago
  Often the subject is nuanced enough that even editors at scientific journals make blunders when changing words that would make a scientist cringe. Probably the false positive rates of edits from a professional editor does not add enough value to make it worth the effort generally. I imagine if the writer has a very poor command of writing in English, then having an editor would benefit.
• zwaps 6y ago
  There is no real reason why not. We frequently do this. Sure, you have to find someone who can read and understand the material and knows what good academic writing looks like, but professional copywriters are usually up to the task. However, you iterate a lot on drafts so it usually happens only at a few stages, certainly not before uploading something to a preprint repository. In addition, there's a cultural or institutional blindness. Many are bad writers, but are also blissfully unaware of the issue. Without my advisor, who is an excellent writer and yet hires professional proofreaders, I think I simply would not have known that it is something you can or should do.