Companies that provide proofreading and editing services specifically tailored for academic work such as theses, dissertations, journal papers and conference proceedings have different naming conventions for the services they offer. But they all refer to the same task, which is to prepare your manuscript for publication and ensure it is clear to read and error-free. Some common naming conventions are:
academic editing service
manuscript editing
academic research editing
research article editing
research paper editing
PhD and Master thesis editing
PhD and Master dissertation editing
English editing
Online editing
There are many academic proofreading and editing companies available online. How to choose a reliable one? This is easy. The best way to choose a reliable company is to check several important factors. The first thing you should do is to check their reputation. You can do this by checking the reviews of them by other clients. A good editing company would have good reviews by researchers and academicians who would provide details about the quality of the proofreading and editing, the ease of communication with the staff, and the time of delivery.
Another important factor to check is if they offer any free samples of the work they have done in the past, or if they are able to proofread a brief sample of your work for free so you can get an idea about the quality of their work. This way, you can send your manuscript with peace of mind.
Time of delivery is also important, since researchers usually have a specific deadline to meet for paper submission, and need their work back within a fixed timeframe. So it is also vital to ask about when the proofreader can complete and send back your work.
Communication with staff via email and/or phone is also an important factor to consider. The easier the communication with the staff members of a company, the more likely you would be to send your work to that company. So it would be better to send your work to a company that has customer support specialists who are helpful in answering all your questions. This would certainly be better than sending your manuscript to one that does not offer any way to communicate with staff.
Another key factor is security and confidentiality. You never know who you are sending your manuscript to. And if you have worked hard on that manuscript, which is almost always the case, you certainly would not want to blindly send it to un untrustworthy party, who may or may not use your ideas and results without permission. It is very important to ensure that the company enforces confidentiality measures and keeps your work secure and confidential to any third part at all times. The only person who should have access to the manuscript is the editor who would work on the document, and he or she should have some kind of non-disclosure agreement enforced. You should also ask about this to ensure the company will protect your work at all times during the editing process.
Finally, you should ask if the company provides an official proofreading certificate, since most journals ask for this as a form of proof that the manuscript that has been sent for publication has already been edited and proofread by a professional, skilled editor from the company.
English 
Bahasa Melayu 