In this round up we look at the best editing services for scientific manuscripts.
This UK-based company works with clients globally and, uniquely, uses two editors to check every scientific manuscript. They have worked with researchers in over 75+ countries around the world for over 10 years now. They have a growing client base particularly in the Middle East and South East Asia. They cover the social sciences, life sciences and natural sciences – a very comprehensive coverage of all subejct areas with subject specialists in many fields.
Prices: The most competitively priced, from $17 per 1,000 words.
A global brand based in India with headquarters in Japan and the USA. They work with many universities and publishers, mainly in large markets like US, China, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. They have many additional services to cover all aspects of academic publishing. There are three tiers of scientific editing, which are copy editing, substantive editing, top impact scientific editing for those that need a guarantee they will get published in top journals. The text on the website has some grammar errors on it – this is worth bearing in mind in terms of service quality.
Prices: From $70 per 1,000 words.
MDPI is an academic journal publisher with 474 journals, that has an author services branch as part of the company. They are based in Basel, Switzerland. They offer three levels of editing for manuscripts which include standard service (5-day return time), rapid (as quick as 10-hour return) and academic editing (takes 5 days and includes four rounds of editing). They also do figure and layout formatting.
Prices: From $93 per 1,000 words.
Similar to MDPI, Elsevier is an academic publisher that has an author services company. They also have three levels: standard, express and plus services. The return times range from 1 to 7 business days. They also do translation and latex editing, which is quite a niche service. Due to its complexity latex editing costs significantly more. Prices below are for the standard Word documents. Return times range from standard (4–25 business days) to express (1–4 business days)
Prices: From around $165 per 1,000 words.
Scribendi is a Canadian proofreading company founded in 1997, thus making it one of the oldest editing companies online. They have a reputation for general editing but have recently ramped up their scientific manuscript editing services with the acquisition of Edanz to penetrate the Chinese market. They have a range of pricing for books, academic work and scientific editing. The price below is for scientific editing in 72 hours. They have shorter return times which are more expensive.
Prices: From around $116 per 1,000 words.
This is an updated overview for 2025. Watch this space for further updates to the list!
