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H-ASIA December 31, 2009 Further response re: Copy-editing of journal articles vs book manuscripts ************************************************************************* From: Paul H. Kratoska <kratoska@nus.edu.sg> I won't be able to trace my source, but I recall reading that when crossref (www.crossref.org) began offering live links to materials cited in journal articles, it was found that a surprising number of citations were inaccurate. One presumed benefit of crossref, then, is going to be more accurate notes. An enquiry into this subject probably requires a distinction between fact checking, copy editing (for grammar, logic and so on) and style editing (for consistency and adherence to house style). Some years ago, as editor of the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, I oversaw the transition to publication by Cambridge University Press. CUP provided the services of a freelance copy editor, but the editorial team in Singapore continued to provide preliminary copy editing based on at least a basic familiarity with the field of study, which the editor in Cambridge lacked. However, there also comes a point in the process where the perfect can get in the way of the good, and there have been a number of examples of editors whose efforts to improve manuscripts caused a great deal of unhappiness among authors. For writers whose first language is not English, fairly heaving copy editing would be of great help in getting material published, but I don't know of any journals able to provide this service. To set all this in context, a 2004 article by Carol Tenopir (Library Journal, 2/1/2004 - http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA374956.html <http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA374956.html> ) suggests that there were then 43,500 academic and scholarly journals. This figure is almost certainly much too low. There are something like 10,000 journals produced in Southeast Asia, with around 1,000 new titles added each year (a significant number also disappear). The number for East Asia is certainly larger because China, Korea and Japan have well over 1,000 universities and a lively tradition of publishing university journals. These figures seem surprisingly high, but the former is an estimate from the Library of Congress Office in Jakarta. Consider, too, that the University of the Philippines alone produces 44 journals. It seems highly unlikely that the material published in most of these journals receives much editorial intervention, but I would certainly be interested in hearing from others on this point. Paul Dr Paul H. KRATOSKA Managing Director, NUS Press (Pte) Ltd (A Business Unit of NUS Enterprise) National University of Singapore AS3-01-02, 3 Arts Link, Singapore 117569 Tel +65 6516-5474 :: Fax +65 6774-0652 ****************************************************************** To post to H-ASIA simply send your message to: <H-ASIA@h-net.msu.edu> For holidays or short absences send post to: <listserv@h-net.msu.edu> with message: SET H-ASIA NOMAIL Upon return, send post with message SET H-ASIA MAIL H-ASIA WEB HOMEPAGE URL: http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia/
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