Providing Scientific Writing and Editing Services to Chinese Researchers. Part I: Opportunities and Challenges

Opportunities

In China, publishing research articles in prestigious scientific journals is more than just "publish or perish." To a certain degree, it’s about fame, career advancement, and even survival. 

Chinese researchers have long been encouraged to publish in English journals. Current academic rules value English publications more than Chinese publications. Minimum numbers of publications in journals included in the Science Citation Index (SCI) database are requisites of graduation, employment, and promotion. And a journal’s impact factor is one of the most important factors that Chinese researchers consider when choosing a target journal for manuscript submission. In general, the higher the impact factor of a journal, the more strongly Chinese researchers desire to publish in such a journal. In China, the total number of published journal articles along with the impact factors of the journals where the articles are published is commonly used to judge a researcher’s scientific merit.

However, writing scientific articles in English poses a great challenge to many Chinese researchers, especially those who have never studied or worked in English-speaking countries. Besides language barriers and cultural differences, many Chinese researchers, like many native-English speaking researchers, have difficulty telling logical, coherent, and succinct scientific stories in writing. And many of them have yet to acquire the habit of checking and following their target journals’ Instructions for Authors before or while writing their manuscripts.

Naturally, in China there is a great need for English writing and editing assistance. And English writing and editing assistance provided by professional writers and editors like AMWA members is in high demand.

Challenges

Many professional English writers and editors, including AMWA members, are interested in providing professional writing and editing services to Chinese researchers. However, challenges exist for both Chinese researchers and professional writers and editors. And the two main challenges are: coming up with service rates that are acceptable to both parties and finding a channel through which the two parties can directly work together.

Acceptable rates to both parties. Limited funding and a lack of knowledge on the scientific/medical writing and editing profession are the two main reasons that Chinese researchers are reluctant to pay the rates proposed by professional writers and editors.

In China, those who need publication the most are graduate students and junior level researchers ­— the former needs publications to graduate and the latter needs publications to secure tenure positions. However, these two groups generally have zero or only limited funding and often cannot afford professional writing or editing services. Under the pressure of publishing in English journals, some of these individuals, however, are willing to hire editors to improve their manuscripts, either using their limited research funding or out of their own pockets. Many of them seek professional help only after their manuscripts have been rejected because of poor writing qualities, though.

Limited collaboration channels. A professional organization like AMWA does not exist in China. The vast majority of Chinese researchers don’t know AMWA, and they have no idea where to get professional help to improve writing. Currently, most of the author-editor relations between Chinese researchers and western editors are built through scientific journals or for-profit editing agencies.

Some scientific journals have their own small pools of freelance copyeditors, and the editors of these journals sometimes recommend the copyeditors to authors whose manuscripts need to be polished prior to the peer-review process. But the problem is that only a small number of editors have the privilege of being included in the pools. For-profit editing agencies can serve as bridges between professional editors and researchers, but they — because of their for-profit nature — can also block the communication channel and interfere the collaboration between researchers and editors.