English Editing Policy at CIBNOR

BACKGROUND

CIBNOR provides English and technical editing services to its members (researchers, students, administrators, and technicians). This service enhances the international reputation of its members and our institution. To our knowledge, we are the only research institution in Mexico that provides professional, technical editing services directly to its members without cost. Our editor has a lifetime of experience in teaching, writing, and editing in the USA for government organizations, private companies, and university students and over seven years at CIBNOR.

Editing services consist of many written components, including, but is not limited to, grammar, syntax, expression, general composition, organization, deletion of redundancies, addition of missing information, correct spelling of words and terms (species, chemicals, place names, and specialized and technical terminology), currently accepted or required units of measurements, and required style formatting for journals. Articles must be complete and almost ready for submission, cleared with English Spell-Check throughout the document (usually American, but sometimes British usage), and include:

• Double-spacing of the entire article in Times New Roman 12-point font.
• Left-margin alignment.
• Figures and tables (except photographs) submitted electronically or printed.
• Title page, headings, text, and references formatted in the style of the journal.

Services for Posgrado students include correction of oral and poster presentations for conferences, coaching in oral presentations, and an annual workshop for preparing manuscripts. It is the policy of Posgrado that student presentations in English for international conferences (posters and PowerPoint slides) must be reviewed by our editor.

PRIORITIES

English language documents are edited in order of urgency. In general, short documents have precedence over long documents. Special circumstances shorten or lengthen turn-around time.

A --- One-hour to two-day turn-around time- Abstracts for theses- Abstracts for conference presentations- Letters- Resumes and CVs (if part of a submission with a deadline)- Reviews by CIBNOR referees of articles- Administrative documents- Applications for international grants and study programs

B --- Three-day to one-week turn-around time- Articles requiring a revision that have a deadline (providing the first-submission version was reviewed by our editor)- Research proposals submitted to organizations outside of Mexico- Progress reports of current research funded by organizations outside of Mexico

C --- One-week to three-week turn-around time- Journal articles by researchers (short articles are reviewed faster than long article)- Articles by doctoral students, providing the manuscript is understandable and was reviewed by the advisor (articles written by students, on average, take twice as long to review as articles written by researchers)- Reviews of literature intended for journals (these are usually the most time-consuming)- Book chapters

PROHIBITED AND PROBLEMATIC DOCUMENTS

Documents that will not be edited include:

• English-language theses
• Documents by persons not working or studying at CIBNOR
• Computer translations that are not appropriately corrected before submission to the editor

Manuscripts that are missing sections or are not formatted to the style of the publisher may be returned when the problem is discovered. Authors will be asked to supply the missing sections (usually abstracts, acknowledgements, references, tables, or figures) or format the article correctly. The most frequently incorrect formatting problems are the title page and the reference section. The most problematic section, in terms of composition and clarity, is usually the discussion section. If the discussion is too long or improperly composed, the manuscript may be returned to the author for revisions.

REQUIRED SUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENTS AND INFORMATION

1. For editing of first-submission articles, include the following:
   • Name of the journal (in the e-mail)
   • Electronic or paper copy of a published article that contains a table and a figure
2. For editing of articles after revision according to reviewer’s comments:
   • See Part 1
   • Electronic or paper copy of the reviewers’ comments
   • A separate file containing the author’s letter of responses to the reviewers’ comments
3. Students requesting editing of English abstracts for their thesis should include:
   • Full title of thesis in Spanish and English
   • Name of their tutor (in the e-mail)
   • Resumen