Efficacy of copy-editing [was RE: STM Publisher Briefing on Institution Repository Deposit Mandates]

[<matt.hodgkinson@biomedcentral.com>]

"Surprisingly few studies have evaluated the effects of technical 
editing rigorously. However there is some evidence that the 
'package' of technical editing used by biomedical journals does 
improve papers. A substantial number of references in biomedical 
articles are cited or quoted inaccurately".

Wager E, Middleton P: Technical editing of research reports in 
biomedical journals. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2008, Oct 
8;(4):MR000002. 
http://mrw.interscience.wiley.com/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/MR000002/fr 
ame.html

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
On Behalf Of Sandy Thatcher
Sent: 19 January 2009 20:14
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: STM Publisher Briefing on Institution Repository Deposit
Mandates

The only statement in Stevan's commentary that I find surprising 
and questionable--because it is stated with such certainty of its 
truth, with no reference to any empirical backing, which is 
unusual for Stevan--is the claim that it is "exceedingly rare" 
(Stevan's emphasis) for copyediting "to detect any substantive 
errors" in articles. I have no evidence to disprove this claim 
that is based on systematic investigation of my own, but in all 
the years I spent as a copyeditor myself, it does not ring true, 
and was not consistent with my own experience in editing 
scholarly work in the humanities and social sciences.

Are the sciences any different? Not according to one editor who 
has worked on thousands of scientific articles, who commented on 
a draft of my article on "The Value Added by Copyediting" 
(Against the Grain, September 2008). Among other things, he 
testified that "even in highly technical articles 'the equations 
are usually accompanied by thickets of impenetrable prose,' and a 
lot of his work 'involves making sure that the text and the 
equations say the same thing.' He also adds that he checks 'the 
basic math in tables, since it's amazing how often scientists get 
the sums and averages wrong.'"

A study by Malcolm Wright and J. Scott Armstrong titled "Fawlty 
Towers of Knowledge" in the March/April 2008 issue of Interfaces 
also found high rates of errors in citations and quotations, 
partly because researchers relied on preprints and never bothered 
to check the accuracy of citations and quotations from those 
preprints. I would consider these "substantive errors," since 
they are not simply matters of style or grammar. So, I would ask 
Stevan whence his high degree of confidence in this claim 
derives. Nothing in my experience, or that of other editors I 
have asked, bears it out.

Sandy Thatcher
Penn State University Press


>Two members of STM have kindly, at my request, allowed me to see a copy

>of the STM Briefing on IRs and Deposit Mandates. I focused the
>commentary below on quoted excerpts, but before posting it I asked STM
>CEO Michael Mabe for permission to include the quotes. As I do not yet
>have an answer, I am posting the commentary with paraphrases of the
>passages I had hoped to quote. If I receive permission from Michael, I
>will re-post this with the verbatim quotes. As it stands, it is
>self-contained and self-explanatory.
>
>Full hyperlinked version of the posting:
>http://openaccess.eprints.org/index.php?/archives/507-guid.html
>
>The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical
>Publishers (STM) has circulated a fairly anodyne briefing to its member

>publishers. Although it contains a few familiar items of misinformation

>that need to be corrected (yet again), there is nothing alarming or
>subversive in it, along the lines of the PRISM/pit-bull misadventure of

>2007.
>
>Below are some quote/comments along with the (gentle) corrections of
>the persistent bits of misinformation: My responses are unavoidably --
>almost ritually -- repetitive, because the errors and misinformation
>themselves are so repetitive.
>
>STM BRIEFING DOCUMENT (FOR PUBLISHING EXECUTIVES) ON INSTITUTIONAL
>REPOSITORIES AND MANDATED DEPOSIT POLICIES
>
>[MOD. Note:  See URL above for the full text]