Introduction and Purpose

AJE believes that its staff shares the values these guidelines are intended to promote. As a mission-driven company, our purpose is to help researchers get published and succeed in sharing their work with the global community. We seek to apply our approach to quality and ethics in every aspect of service delivery.

The AJE mission

AJE exists to make research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We provide expert services and technology that support researchers throughout their publication journey. Our approach is unique in the industry:

• All AJE papers are edited by trained, full-time professional editors. We do not use contractors for manuscript editing. This ensures that we consistently deliver the highest levels of quality for every paper
• We are headquartered in the US with over 250 US-trained researchers as employees. This means that your research will be edited by knowledgeable and trusted experts/speakers with Native English proficiency
• We provide an exceptional customer experience. Our Research Communication Partners offer hands-on concierge support through the editing process, to ensure you get the most from our service
• We are trusted by the world’s leading research institutions, societies, and publishers to offer ethical services of the highest quality. That’s why we’re the preferred partner for more of the world’s top journals than any other manuscript preparation service

Our team 

The team at AJE includes Academic Editors, Quality Control Inspectors, Academic Translation Advisors, Formatting Specialists, Illustrators, Customer Support Specialists, Research Communication Partners, and more. 

Academic Editor (AE)

AEs perform academic manuscript  editing within their field of study to optimize English language quality and to ensure that research is ready for publication in top journals.

What an AE does:

• Delivers primary editing on academic manuscripts to ensure that English language quality achieves AJE standards
• Applies field-specific knowledge and delivers high-quality editing that meets customer and journal expectations
• Partners with the Customer Service team to address customer questions/complaints and support tailored manuscript service solutions
• Uses the latest technology supplied by AJE to support high-efficiency, high-quality edits

What our AEs deliver:

• Submission-ready edited manuscripts on time
• Solutions to customer problems in a collegial and timely manner
• Above-and-beyond service to meet our customers’ needs

Academic Translation Advisor (ATA)

ATAs provide Premium Translation services.

Research Communication Partner (RCP)

Our RCPs help guide customers through their editing journey. They act as the primary point of contact for all service-related questions from customers, ensuring a smooth and hassle-free experience. 

What an RCPs does:

• Understands and guides customers to the right services
• Oversees the delivery of each Premium Editing project to ensure customer satisfaction
• Works with Premium Editing customers to address questions or concerns regarding past, current, and future edits

Customer Support Representative (CSR)

Our Customer Support Team acts as the first line of contact with customers. CSRs  provide excellent verbal and written support in Chinese, English, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. Each CSR interacts closely with AJE customers and staff and is an expert on our websites, service offerings, and policies.

Quality Guarantee

We understand how important your work is, and we are committed to helping you succeed. All AJE services are backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee, providing quality and dependable author services that you can trust. 

Editing with 100% satisfaction guarantee

The final edited  manuscript you receive from AJE is covered by our best-in-class guarantee. This means that if  your edited paper is rejected by your journal because of  English language errors, we will re-edit it for free. Please note that material added to your paper after our editors work on your manuscript is not included in this guarantee. For this reason, we recommend that you send us your final draft when you make a new submission.

Formatting that meets journal requirements

We guarantee that your paper will be formatted according to your target journal’s guidelines, and we will provide comments describing any missing elements that are required for submission. If the editor of your target journal mentions any problems with the formatting of your paper, we will reformat your paper for free.

English Translation with editing certificate 

Every paper submitted for our Standard or Premium Translation service is eligible for an AJE editing certificate. We guarantee that if you are not satisfied with your manuscript, or if your target journal says that the English in our edited version needs improvement, we will re-edit it for free.

Figure Preparation that meets journal requirements

We guarantee that the formatted figures and tables that you receive meet the stated formatting requirements of your intended journal. We follow technical and ethical standards (see more on our Figure Formatting page) to ensure highest quality. If your target journal has any issues with the preparation of your figures or tables, we will do our best to resolve those issues for free.

Highest levels of customer service

We strive for the highest standards of customer experience. Our mission is to help researchers succeed with their publication goals. Our service teams:

• Help authors navigate our website and choose the right product for their needs
• Answer author questions about our work
• Restore trust when we make mistakes
• Lend their expertise on the rest of the publication process
• Communicate customers’ concerns or special requests to the rest of the AJE team

We will go above and beyond to ensure you are 100% satisfied with our work.

Ethics

AJE is deeply committed to ethical practices in our business and throughout research. Our team upholds an ethical approach in the delivery of all our services. As a company, we maintain policies and procedures to ensure ethical behavior, and we are dedicated to promoting ethics in research through education and information-sharing.

We strongly believe that services that offer to write or rewrite papers without full transparency about their role are acting unethically. Employing this type of unethical service could lead to paper retraction and other risks to your reputation. AJE will not revise previously published/copyrighted material for use in another publication.

You do not need to include your AJE editors as authors on your paper. Because our editors focus on English language editing, and not article development, content editing, or other tasks that merit authorship, they do not qualify for this status according to the guidelines outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). However, you are welcome to acknowledge AJE’s assistance in your paper.

Please refer to the section on Language Editing and Service Provision for more on our ethical approach in service delivery.

COPE Partners/Membership

AJE is an Associate Corporate members of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Although we are  not a publisher, COPE’s work resonates with us and informs how we serve both authors and publishers. For almost 20 years, COPE has provided important resources on publication ethics, from best practices for journal editors and authors to flowcharts that guide decision making in specific cases.

Language Editing and service provision

Our approach to service delivery

People

We value our team members. 

• We trust our people and the expertise they bring to AJE
• We rigorously select our people based on their experience and knowledge
• We invest in our people and ensure they have rigorous training to work at the highest standards for every order
• We create systems that support their performance and development, and we create tools that enable them to work effectively

Policies

Our policies are designed to satisfy authors and journals.

• They enable us to maintain high quality standards for every order and to add value for our customers at every stage
• Our policies allow for consistency across papers as well as reasonable flexibility to allow us to fulfill specific customer needs

Procedures

Our procedures are designed to satisfy our customers and to support our people.

• They help us to produce consistently high-quality work
• We keep procedures as simple as possible but not simplistic
• This approach recognizes that an inflexible process frustrates both customers and employees

Technology

We rely on technology to distribute work in a fair and predictable way to improve our consistency and our customer experience

• We use technology to track papers and meet deadlines
• Our tools help us to match customers with the best editors and to intelligently solve customer challenges 
• This ultimately enables success for our authors and provides better support for our people

Ethics

In accordance with our ethical approach, the policy detailed here outlines the boundaries within which our staff is expected to operate.

Partnerships

AJE is a trusted name in the scholarly publishing community. 

• We work with leading universities, institutions, journals, and publishers
• We carefully select our partners based on the positive impact they make on both the global community and the research publication industry
• As part of our commitment to ethics, we actively avoid partnering with publishers, journals, and societies identified as predatory or those who engage in unethical practices
• Our partners must demonstrate the same commitment to our company values, which allows us to stay true to our mission