AI is everywhere, right from the way you order your coffee to how you tutor your kids. So why not use AI to edit your research paper? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of using AI versus human editing and when you should use each.
Advantages of AI Editing
Affordable:
Basic LLMs like ChatGPT are free to the public. AI-powered academic writing assistants like Paperpal are also either free or priced very reasonably. In contrast, the prices of a professional editing service like American Journal Experts range from USD 38 to 1500.
Fast:
AI can give you answers in seconds and edit your entire research paper in minutes. The fastest ediing plan under Wiley Editing Services, for example, is 24 hours. When you’re in a last-minute bind, there’s nothing like AI.
Advanced features:
If you’re using an AI-powered academic writing tool, you get not just writing support but access to a host of other useful features. For example, some tools like Paperpal offer free plagiarism checks or citation generators, which allow you to work more efficiently and productively.
Real-time feedback:
You can refine your writing on the go, altering and tweaking sentences as you please.
Advantages of Human Editing Over AI
Sensitive to nuance:
Professional human editors understand the conventions and phraseology used in academic writing. They look at not just grammar but whether you’re being accurate and professional in describing your study and results. For example, using brand names of drugs is often verboten in scientific journals, but this is an acceptable practice in mainstream media. Phrases like “5 participants were lost to follow up” sound awkward in ordinary English but are widely used, with a specific meaning, in medical research.
Ability to enhance coherence and logic:
An LLM is essentially a language predictor: it comes up with a combination of words based on its analysis of extensive training datasets. A human editor is not concerned about probabilities: they focus on whether your research has been communicated clearly or not. That’s why a human editor can point out issues like a lack of agreement between your Results and Discussion, or that your participant flowchart doesn’t match the inclusion and exclusion criteria listed in your Methods section.
Answers to your questions:
A professional human editor is happy to explain the rationale behind their changes and help you understand why a certain sentence had to be edited. You can literally pick their brain to improve your own writing skills and knowledge of grammar and style. You and your editor can discuss any ambiguous or confusing text until you are both confident that the wording is accurate.
No hallucinations:
AI can be prone to “hallucinations”: making up data, citations, etc. for things it doesn’t know. A professional editor will recognize that a paper deals with highly niche or cutting-edge research, and enter into a dialogue with you to make sure there are no misunderstandings.
Data security and privacy:
Because LLMs like ChatGPT can use the data you upload to train models in the future, any sensitive or confidential data could be inadvertently shared or exposed on the web. Sharing participant data, for example, may violate ethics and regulations in medical research. Professional editing services take steps to ensure robust data security and researcher confidentiality through ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified IT systems, comprehensive and legally binding non-disclosure agreements for all editors and employees, and secure, encrypted file management.
Meeting journal specifications:
A human editor can sift through journal guidelines, no matter how long or poorly organized, and apply them to your paper. LLMs often fail at journal formatting, and even AI academic writing tools are often restricted to just citations and references when it comes to manuscript formatting.
Top Professional Editing Services
If you’ve decided to set aside some of your precious research budget to get your paper professionally edited, here are the top services that will give you your money’s worth.
Editage
Editage gives you all the advantages of human editing: a pool of 3000+ subject matter experts; ISO/IEC 27001:2022, ISO 17100 & ISO 18587 certified security systems; unlimited Q&A with your editor; free manuscript formatting. Editage is trusted by 1600+ journals, universities and societies, and offers end-to-end support for every stage of your writing and publication journey.
Wiley Editing Services
Wiley Editing Services ensures that every paper undergoes two rounds of edit by two different expert editors, to make sure that its language is flawless. All editors are native English speakers with postgraduate qualifications. Wiley offers a 100% confidentiality guarantee, with ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified security management systems.
American Journal Experts
American Journal Experts boasts a team of US-trained editors, capable of handling research papers, theses, grant applications, academic books, etc. All papers are paper matched by subject area to an editor with an advanced degree. American Journal Experts also provides a certificate guaranteeing the language quality of their edited manuscripts.
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