Language Editing Support for IJN Authors
Practical guidance and trusted pathways to help your manuscript communicate clearly before peer review.
Clarity Amplifies Impact
Strong science deserves strong presentation. Strategic language editing makes it easier for reviewers to evaluate your work on its evidence, not on its English.
Multilingual Teams
Projects led by investigators whose primary language is not English, or collaborations that combine multiple writing styles.
High-Stakes Submissions
Clinical trials, systematic reviews, and complex mechanistic studies where nuance, regulatory terminology, or patient-facing language must be exact.
Reviewer Feedback
Prior peer reviews highlighted issues such as ambiguous phrasing, grammar inconsistencies, or difficulty following the narrative.
Language Precision
- Grammar, syntax, and punctuation corrections
- Consistent tense, tone, and terminology
- Clarity in statistical and methodological descriptions
Scientific Accuracy
- Respect for original meaning—no data or interpretation changes
- Familiarity with nutrition and biomedical vocabulary
- Checks that abbreviations, units, and figure captions align
Submission Readiness
- Documents prepared according to IJN formatting expectations
- Clean tracked changes and editor comments for easy review
- Optional certificate or summary letter confirming work completed
Due Diligence Checklist
- Confirm biomedical or nutrition expertise within the editorial team
- Request a confidentiality agreement—especially for unpublished patient data
- Clarify turnaround time, cost structure, and revision policy
- Ask whether the service includes formatting, reference checks, or figure polishing
Suggested Starting Points
- University writing centers or research communication offices
- Professional societies that provide editing referrals
- Freelance editors with subject-matter portfolios and testimonials
- Commercial firms that specialize in STM (science/technical/medical) manuscripts
- Run automated checks: Start with grammar/spell tools to capture surface-level issues.
- Read aloud: Hearing the text reveals lengthy sentences, missing transitions, and abrupt shifts.
- Compare with IJN articles: Mirror structure, headings, and stylistic cues from recently accepted papers.
- Solicit a peer review: Ask a colleague fluent in English to mark unclear phrases or logic gaps.
- Create a terminology list: Maintain a spreadsheet of abbreviations, units, and preferred phrasing for consistency.
- Final pass after formatting: Check pagination, figure labels, and table footnotes once PDFs are generated.
Author Responsibilities
- Review every change and revert anything that alters scientific meaning
- Ensure nutrient names, dosage units, and population descriptors remain accurate
- Verify that references, tables, and supplementary data match the narrative
- Note the editing assistance in your cover letter if revisions were substantial
Tips for Revision Rounds
- Retain redlined drafts for transparency
- Share reviewer comments with your editor if a second pass is needed
- Schedule editing time before each resubmission deadline
Talk to the IJN Editorial Office
Email: [email protected]
Subject: Language Editing Inquiry – [Manuscript Title]
We can advise whether language polishing is recommended before you formally submit.
Last updated: October 2025
