FAQs

Basic Editing includes correction of any spelling, grammar, punctuation, or word usage errors, but your editors will not try to improve the style or flow of your paper as they would with our Advanced Editing service. All Basic submissions are eligible (but not guaranteed) to earn an editing certificate. With Advanced Editing, we will correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word usage errors. We will also improve sentences that sound awkward or unnatural and provide an editing summary that provides some examples of the changes that we made. This summary highlights the types of changes your editor made and helps to explain why these changes were made. Because Advanced Editing is so thorough, we guarantee that Advanced papers will receive an editing certificate.

Science Language Services will provide a certificate confirming that your paper was edited by a native English speaker at Science Language Services and, assuming all of the changes we proposed are incorporated into the manuscript, is ready for journal submission. It will allow journal editors to feel confident that the English language in your paper has been reviewed and verified. Not every paper will earn a certificate, but every paper will have the opportunity. Science Language Services Editing Certificate.pdf

Publication is a subjective process, so we are not able to guarantee that you will be published after you use our services. We do guarantee that we will re-edit your paper for free if it is rejected by a journal for reasons of English language alone.

Please e-mail us the same draft of your paper that you submitted to your journal along with all of your reviewers’ comments. We will review your files immediately and contact you with additional advice.

If you created your manuscript in LaTeX, please save it as a .doc, .docx or .rtf file before you submit it for editing. We will also need you to upload a PDF of your manuscript as a secondary file for your editors' reference.

We offers translation services from Portuguese, Spanish, and Chinese into English, as well as reverse translation from English into Portuguese, Spanish, and Chinese.

We can translate manuscripts from English to Chinese, Portuguese, or Spanish. Please email us and we will be glad to assist you.

If you have any questions about your translation after you receive your completed paper, you are welcome to contact us and we will assist you.

Publication is a subjective process, so we are not able to guarantee that you will be published after you use our services. We do guarantee that we will re-edit your paper for free if it is rejected by a journal for reasons of English language alone.

Please e-mail us the same draft of your paper that you submitted to your journal along with all of your reviewers’ comments. We will review your files immediately and contact you with additional advice.

If you created your manuscript in LaTeX, please save it as a .doc, .docx or .rtf file before you submit it. We will also need you to upload a PDF of your manuscript as a secondary file for your editors' reference.

Yes. Manuscript Formatting will reorder your citations and references as needed, convert citations and references to the journal's format, and if necessary, correct content based on information in published databases.

No, unfortunately we cannot format equations at this time.

We format manuscripts according to the journal's guidelines for submission. Once a paper is accepted, the journal may perform copyediting and typesetting of the formatted paper to get it ready for publication.

We are currently able to process the following file types: DOC, DOCX (Microsoft Word) ODT (OpenOffice Writer) PPT, PPTX (Microsoft PowerPoint) ODP (OpenOffice Impress) XLS, XLSX (Microsoft Excel) ODT (OpenOffice Calc) OPJ (Origin) CDR (CorelDRAW) AI, AIT (Adobe Illustrator) PSD, PDD (Adobe Photoshop) EPS (Various Programs) File types that are not on this list should be exported as EPS files. We can also advise authors using alternative software on the best procedure to export figures in one of our recommended file types.

Yes, if you would like assistance formatting tables, please use our Figure Preparation services. Journals require that tables be submitted in a text format (usually Microsoft Word). If you would like help formatting your tables according to journal guidelines, please provide Excel or Word-editable files containing your tables. Also, if you would like tables formatted and exported as images for use in presentations and posters, we can do this as part of our Figure Preparation service.

In order to generate publication-quality figures, images that are included within a figure should also be sent independently in the highest available resolution file. For ethical reasons, we are unable to make changes to brightness, contrast, or color balance, and we will not crop the image.

Many journals require figures to be submitted as EPS files, which may not open with your current software. In addition to the submission-ready file, we will also send PDF versions of your new figures for you to review.

We format the figures according to the author instructions for the final publication (assuming that these instructions are available). Figures added or changed after review that need formatting are considered new submissions and must be purchased separately.

You must have access to the appropriate software to make changes to your figures within their new file type. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you send the final version of your figures to us for formatting. We stand behind the quality of our work, and if a figure does not meet your expectations, we will work with you to correct the issue.

We do not perform peer review of your manuscript as part of the Journal Recommendation service; however, if you provide a range of impact factors, we will do our best to provide recommendations that meet your publishing goals.

To calculate the word count, you should open a copy of your manuscript and delete any parts that you do not need us to work on. In a letter to your reviewers, you can take out all of the reviewers’ comments. If you submit for editing only or have a translation submission but don’t need your references translated, then you can remove the bibliography section. You can also take out any numeric table data. Next, perform a word count on the remaining text using the Word Count feature in Microsoft Word on every file you plan to submit to us and add it all together. This is your final word count. Our support staff can perform a word count for you if you e-mail us your files and ask for confirmation.

We do not edit references or numeric tables, so they are not included in the word count when calculating your price for editing services. However, word counts for translation submissions should include all text that needs to be translated, which typically does include references and text in tables.

Weekends and holidays are not included in our deadlines. Science Language Services is closed for U.S. holidays eight days of the year, and deadlines are delayed for these days: January 1, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the day after Christmas.

Our staff members will verify each paper’s word count before it is assigned to an editor. If we find that your file’s word count is over the category you selected, then we will place your submission on hold while we e-mail you for further instructions. Your deadline will be reset to begin at the exact time of your reply. If your paper is shorter than indicated, we will refund the price difference to your account.

You will need to highlight the sections that you want us to ignore and will be prompted to include some instructions about this when you upload your file through your account. Please keep in mind that we may withhold your editing certificate if you ask us to leave out large portions of your paper.

Please select purchase order as your payment method when you submit your manuscript. The invoice that will be available for you to download from your account dashboard will contain all of the banking information you will need to send us your payment. Purchase order payments are due within 30 days of your order.

We currently accept the following currencies and credit/debit cards: British Pounds Sterling: MasterCard, Visa Chinese Renminbi: MasterCard, Visa, UnionPay Euro: MasterCard, Visa Japanese Yen: MasterCard, Visa U.S. Dollar: American Express, Discover, JCB, MasterCard, Visa

In addition to the services purchased, your invoice will contain the billing address you enter when you submit your order, the order date, your manuscript name, and receipt code. Our support team can customize your invoice for you if you need to add any additional information. Invoice USD.pdf Invoice RMB.pdf

Invoices display the final price in USD by default, but our support team can update your invoice with any currency you prefer.

If you need Chinese Fapiao (发票), please select our Alipay (支付宝), Unionpay (银联卡), or Bank Transfer (对公转账) with Fapiao payment option and input the required information. Our business partner CIBTC will import the service and provide a Chinese Fapiao for you. We provide several Fapiao categories: Polishing Fee (润色费), Editing Fee (编辑费), Translation Fee (翻译费), Service Fee (服务费), Information Searching Fee (文献检索费), Foreign Text Fee (外文资料费), and Consulting Fee (咨询费). Please select your preferred Fapiao category during the online checkout process. There will be a fee of $25 on top of your order to cover the government tax and additional service. CIBTC will mail the Chinese Fapiao to you within 2 weeks of your payment. Please note that if you choose to pay by a credit card, purchase order, or PayPal, we cannot issue a Chinese Fapiao. Instead, you will receive a non-taxed receipt (收据) or bill (账单).

No, you will not receive your credits until the person you have referred has a completed order in his or her new SLS account.

Your SLS account contains a unique link and e-mail text that you can quickly and easily send to your colleagues.

There is no limit to the number of credits you can earn, and your SLS credits will not expire.

No— only the first paper submitted will count.