Hi all,

Just a quick query - can I do some minor revisions (more like rephrasing some sentences so basically the content is not altered only the wording) in the proof forwarded to me by the journal? Exactly what kind of corrections are allowed?

Would appreciate your thoughts/comments/advice on this :-)

Thanks

I'm not sure about journals, but in literary publishing it is really quite common that writers rewrite whole passages... In fact I once met a publisher who told me they expected that to happen and made bets in their office about how much exactly would be re-written.

For a journal, as long your corrections do not affect the content or the length of your paper, I don't see why it'd be a big problem.

in my first (and to date only) experience with academic publishing, I was not allowed to rephrase anything anymore at the proof stage. The editors had specific queries that I was asked to address, and above that I could only ask for some typos or formating issues to be corrected. They explicitly said that rephrasing etc. can't be done. But it probably is again a bit publisher/journal dependent, perhaps best double-check whether you find some info on that in the proof "guidelines" or else e-mail the editor(ial assistant), they should be able to help you.

When I last had a peer-reviewed journal paper the impression I had at the proof stage was that changes should only be 100% essential, and minor. I wouldn't have been rephrasing sentences at that stage, and would have left them as they were. The reason is that by the time it's at proof there is very little time left at the editor's/typesetter's end for corrections.

I've had a few things published, and yes, only essential corrections were allowed. These changes are made by the printer, not the editor, and I think they don't like to do this too much. They also get concerned if the changes affect the length, and change the formatting of the paper, as it means they need to reshuffle the lot. So, in my experience, only minor, typo-type changes are allowed.

Hey! I'm with the others on this- I was only allowed to respond to specific queries from the editor and wasn't allowed to make any other changes at the proof stage! KB

Thanks everyone for your helpful responses:-)

It's long after acceptance, after the article has been typesetted, and the journal is on the point of being published.