As a researcher, your work is of two kinds. On the one hand, you review the literature, identify gaps, design studies, and analyse your findings. On the other, you share your research with both your peers as well as various stakeholders: institutions, governments, and the public, to name a few.
Unfortunately, not everyone has access to the resources they need to excel at these tasks — and recently, it’s been getting more difficult across academia, with more departments (particularly in the social sciences) being “reorganised” and funding becoming more scarce. There is also immense pressure to produce more research output, constantly demonstrating your value to your university or, if you’re working in industry, your organization.
I can’t change these broader trends, but I can help lighten the burden somewhat by sharing the information and skills I have.
Research papers
In my line of work, I’ve seen the word “paper” used to describe a wide range of research publications, from reflective articles to reports on scientific studies, so it can be somewhat ambiguous on its own. Nevertheless, I can name three common steps that publishers take while processing any paper:
- Sending it to reviewers to comment on the content.
- Checking that the language is adequately precise and clear.
- Formatting the titles, headings, text, figures, tables, and references.
Depending on the journal to which you are making your submission, you will be given specific guidelines: for example, guidelines related to the writing style, citation format, word count, English variant to be used, ethics statements, and so on.
The more clearly you follow these, the more likely you are to reach the publication stage without any hurdles — and trust me, the publication process is long enough without you having to keep correcting and sending your paper back and forth. No matter how good you are at conducting research, if you can’t communicate what you do clearly, it may receive much less time of day than it deserves. That’s why it’s so important to take your time and put in that extra effort while drafting.
How I can help: I can review, proofread, and format your work based on the requirements of your journal, thus reducing the time it takes for it to be processed and published.