Many academics seem to use our CS Phares Editing most for their solo-authored documents. Their reasoning for this makes good sense: it’s virtually impossible to catch mistakes or sources of confusion in your own writing. So bringing in another pair of eyes is always beneficial.
At the same time, however, editors also bring unique benefits to coauthored papers. These include integrating diverse inputs and voices, motivating and uniting the authors to work more effectively, and mitigating the many emotional and communication issues that can arise during the complex coauthoring process.
Consider bringing in an experienced academic editor when any of the following rings true for your coauthored manuscript.
There are a lot of different inputs and voices at play.
When coauthors write something together, the end goal is a common one: publish an outstanding piece of research that advances scholarship and benefits every author’s career. Nevertheless, each coauthor is going to bring at least a slightly different focus, agenda, and writing style to the table. Imagine trying to put together a whole puzzle from the perspective of a single corner piece: this is what it can be like trying to make one cohesive whole from various expert perspectives when you are one of those experts.
In contrast, editors might not know very much about your niche topic, but they are seasoned experts in one thing that none of your team members are likely to have on their CV: how to craft readable, engaging writing. Part of a substantive editor’s job is to integrate diverse voices to convey one clear message. We make sure the tone, content, formatting, terminology, and more are consistent across the whole document for seamless flow and a better reader experience—so your research can actually get read and disseminated.
Friendly coauthors mean that a “deadline” isn’t really a deadline.
We’ve all worked on projects with fun people we really like. Ever tried to be the one holding everyone to task on one of those projects? Good luck! It’s often just too hard to enforce deadlines on good friends. Deep down, they know you won’t hold them accountable if they’re too tired to finish their piece on time. You know they won’t really hold you accountable if you have to put another important task before this one. The result is a “someday” project that gets paradoxically harder to finish the longer it drags on.
In these settings, an academic editor can bring a new burst of motivation to help your coauthor team meet its stated goal. Some clients have even asked me to hold them to a hard deadline, as in, “If we don’t have the work to you by this date, promise you won’t work on it at all.” Whatever works, I say! In addition to this added form of pressure, knowing that the work is due to be delivered to a third party whose entire job is to polish the writing can drastically reduce the time some coauthors waste on perfectionism. Even editors agree: done is always better than perfect. With us, you and your coauthors can just worry about “done” while we handle the “perfect” part.
Difficult emotions are affecting the project.
Academics are human (much as academia seems to wish otherwise!). So when life gets stressful, as it often is for those working in academia, strong emotions can be triggered—to the detriment of the project. For example, one coauthor on the paper may be a PhD student with everything riding on this first publication; the other may be a tenured professor with dozens of top-tier publications and a baby going through sleep regression. You can see how conflict over the paper’s progress and quality could arise in this situation and, as I’ve seen first-hand, in many other similar scenarios. I won’t even go into what can happen when some people have their writing critiqued by a colleague (especially if it’s not done professionally and kindly).
Aside from clarifying some key details of the project before you agree to work on it with coauthors (more on that below), hiring an editor is another way to dial down the emotions of any coauthored paper. Editors are typically removed enough from the academic sphere and the work itself to circumvent any tricky dynamics and relations between authors. Our feedback is inherently impersonal, aimed at nothing more than producing the best possible version of your document—which is, after all, what everyone on the project ultimately wants.
Communication has proved difficult or broken down entirely.
In line with the previous point, sometimes, relationships between coauthors can become so strained that the project is in danger of ending up in the bin. In these cases, rather than throw away whatever work has already gone into the paper, consider bringing in an editor to help. Not all editors will be willing to extend their services to include this project management-esque function, but many will (I have). If one coauthor is having trouble meeting deadlines, for instance, the editor can be the one to ask why and offer appropriate solutions (like weekly check-ins or clarity around the aspects of writing that the author is struggling with). If another coauthor delivers consistently suboptimal sections, the editor may be able to review their parts of the document separately and work with them to improve their academic writing.
Again, the value of the editor here is in dialing down the emotions that can flare when colleagues try to manage and critique one another. The fact that it’s an objective third party helping to finalize and polish the manuscript makes it a lot easier for things to stay polite and professional, in my experience. Indeed, some coauthor groups have told me that my presence wasn’t just a strengthening factor in their project but, rather, the only reason it got finished at all. When everyone involved is thoroughly sick of each other, sick of the topic, and sick of having the incomplete paper hanging over their heads, an experienced editor can be the key to kicking it over the finish line.
Finally, I’d like to share a list of questions that I’ve developed to help screen for ideal coauthoring opportunities. Discussing and answering these questions before starting a paper together can mitigate many of the difficulties that coauthoring brings and bolster trust in each other and the project itself. (Note that if this list has you reflecting on how uncomfortable it would be to ask your potential coauthor, it’s entirely possible that you shouldn’t be coauthoring together!)
Questions for potential coauthors
What is the ultimate goal of this project, and why is the research important?
What are the deadlines for the project? Can we set a tentative target submission date now, so we can work backward from that to set smaller deadlines?
What might get in the way of meeting those deadlines? What else is going on in your life right now? Anything I can do to help? (Be sure to state what you need too!)
What will happen if those deadlines aren’t met? (This is a vital question, as establishing the process you’ll follow can keep missed deadlines polite.)
What will happen if one of us has to drop out of the project?
What priority would this project have in your schedule? What about in your broader career?
Who will be the first author of this? (This should typically be the person with the most at stake in the project.)
Do we all agree that one of us should be appointed “project manager” to keep this on track? (Here, too, the first author and person with the most at stake usually makes the best project manager.)
How will we manage this project? What tech and tools will we use to communicate, write, and exchange drafts, etc.?
Are there any parts of this project that you feel particularly equipped (or unequipped) to handle?
How do you feel about generative AI in scholarship? What parts of the writing process (if any) do you use it for? (Depending on where you’re submitting, policies may require that you avoid or declare the use of AI.)
Do we all agree to invest in professional editing for the highest chance of success with this project? How will we cover this expense?
In sum, editors can solve a lot of the problems associated with coauthored papers—but honest and respectful communication can too. I hope the above questions help you and your coauthors lay the groundwork for your next successful project!
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