Academic proofreading

We’re here as a pair of eagle eyes to iron out the final creases in your publication, eradicating errors that might distract from your ideas and undermine your credibility.

Your publishing safety net

It can be daunting to finally hit send on your research project – not least because when you’ve spent hours working on your document, it’s almost impossible to spot mistakes yourself. Let us catch any remaining errors or inconsistencies before you submit or publish your work.

Our professional proofreaders will work through your document with meticulous care to weed out any final typos, check the layout and ensure consistency. They will also review your text closely against any relevant submission guidelines. When we’re finished, you’ll be confident that your paper is up to scratch before it goes out into the world.

Proofreading is usually carried out when a text needs a final polish before publication, usually when it’s already been edited. If your text requires more extensive work, you’ll need a copyeditor. We’ll be very happy to advise on which service you need – academic copyediting or proofreading – when you get in touch.

Tate & Clayburn has worked on hundreds of papers, dissertations and book manuscripts across a wide range of disciplines, so whatever your field, we’d love to help.

Some examples of academic documents we proofread:

  • journal papers
  • book manuscripts
  • book chapters
  • letters to the editor
  • doctoral theses
  • master’s dissertations
  • funding applications
  • conference papers
  • presentations
  • blog posts
  • course materials
  • monographs

Why choose Tate & Clayburn?

01.

Certified quality

We’ve achieved the globally recognised ISO 9001:2015 quality management certification.
02.

Exceptional team

Our hand-picked experts are trusted by hundreds of discerning clients worldwide.
03.

Trust and confidentiality

We treat our clients’ data and intellectual property with the utmost care.
04.

Customer service

Our customers give great feedback – because we don’t rest until they’re thrilled with our work.
05.

Capacity and speed

We draw on all the resources we need to fit in with your schedule.

What is proofreading?

Proofreading involves a series of checks to make sure everything is just right before a document is finalised. A proofreader will correct any remaining errors to ensure nothing’s gone wrong during the final phases of a project, such as design or typesetting. If your text requires more extensive work, you’ll need a copyeditor, and for many projects, we provide both copyediting and proofreading, with or without a design stage in between.

Proofreading page logo
 
 
Alongside proofreading, we also offer a reference-checking service to ensure that your bibliography or reference list is consistent, complete and formatted in line with your chosen referencing style. We can also provide a specialist indexing service.
 

Our academic proofreading service involves:

  • correcting language errors, including typos, incorrect grammar and punctuation, and inappropriate use of vocabulary
  • ensuring consistency, both within the document and with any guidelines you send us
  • eliminating errors in the document’s design, presentation, images and layout
  • cross-checking the final, typeset version of a document against the original text (such as an MS Word file) to ensure that nothing has gone missing or awry during design.
 
 

Services for academics

Frequently asked questions

We place quality at the heart of everything we do, and we’re proud to be certified for compliance with ISO 9001:2015, the globally recognised quality standard. We only work with experienced and fully vetted editors and proofreaders, and our strict in-house quality-checking processes make sure nothing slips through the cracks. Read more about our approach to quality.

The work and personal data you share with us are treated as strictly confidential. All our team members are fully vetted and have signed a contract and non-disclosure agreement. We never share your details or documents with third parties, and we delete data once they are no longer needed. To find out more, please see our privacy policy.

We can usually edit or proofread short documents in as little as 24 hours. Let us know your deadline and we’ll do our absolute best to meet it.
All varieties! We most commonly work in British, American, Canadian and Australian English, but we’ll adapt to whatever preferences you have.
We work with all kinds of files. We most commonly edit and proofread in MS Word as changes can be easily tracked, but we also work in Google Docs, PDFs, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, LaTeX, InDesign and most other file types that are sent our way.

Once we’ve finished editing or proofreading your document, we’ll send it back in the format of your choice. If it’s a file type that supports tracked changes (such as MS Word or Google Docs), our suggestions and comments will be clearly marked up in the document.

Of course, if you have any questions after we’ve sent you the final document, we’re more than happy to answer them.

We do everything we possibly can to correct all errors in a document. We hire only experienced editors and proofreaders with a keen eye for detail, and we have a strict quality assurance policy in place. We’re also certified for compliance with globally recognised quality management standard ISO 9001:2015, which means we place customer satisfaction and quality at the heart of everything we do. Despite all of this, human error is still possible and we can’t guarantee 100% accuracy.
We calculate the cost of copyediting and proofreading based on the number of words in your document and the amount of work involved (for example, a heavy copyedit will cost more than a light proofread as more work is involved in reworking the document). Send us your document and deadline (or a sample of your text and the total word count) and we’ll get back to you with a free, speedy and precise quote.

We accept payment via bank transfer and PayPal, which includes card payments via the PayPal interface.

For individual clients, we ask that you pay up front the first time we work together; after that, we’ll switch to 30-day invoicing. For businesses, universities and other organisations, we understand that you would most likely prefer an invoice on completion. We’ll ask for your business address, and our payment terms are 30 days from the date of invoicing.

Don’t worry in the least! For most of our academic clients, we liaise directly with the finance department to sort out the admin, so you can focus on the research side of things. If you put us in touch with the relevant team, we’ll work through the supplier registration, quoting and invoicing process with them. Just let us know how you prefer to work and we’ll fit in with you.
Yes, as long as you can provide us with a full business address. For individual clients, we ask that you pay up front the first time we work together; after that, we’ll switch to 30-day invoicing.

How can we help?

Fill in this form to email us and we’ll be in touch soon.

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