Editing

Support from the university

The university has internal resources and framework agreements that can provide you with editing and proofreading support.

Scientific and scholarly texts

In many cases, there are resources or procedures within each Faculty for editing. If you are unsure or want to know more, contact your Research Officer.

In certain cases and subject to availability, the Communications Office can carry out edit journal article manuscripts, grant applications, and similar in English or refer you to other university staff who may be able to help you. Your, your department, or your project may be subject to internal billing in those cases but some forms of support are free of charge.

More information about support from the Communications Office, including drop-in editing opportunities, workshops, writing retreats, and more. 

If no member of the university staff can edit your texts, an external provider can be used. The existing framework agreement and its procured providers are to be used in those cases.

Other types of support

Proofreading of signs, webpages, etc. is part of Communications Office's regular tasks, as well as the proofreading doctoral students' thesis titles, back page text, and abstract/summary in both Swedish and English. The Communications Office also supports you if you have general questions about language editing/proofreading or the framework agreements for language services. Please contact the Communications Office for more information,  kommunikation@hb.se.

The Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency's framework agreement

If no staff member at the university can edit your texts, you can use an external supplier, primarily through the current framework agreement drawn up by the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency. Follow the procedure that the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency’s framework agreement specifies.

The Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency framework agreement for translation and language services -- English language services (website is available in Swedish only)

The framework agreement includes editing, translation, proofreading, subtitling, voice over/audio overlay, and transcription.

If the text to be edited is in Swedish, a different framework agreement is in place -- Swedish language services (website is available in Swedish only). 

Prepare your editing job for call-offs

Before you can order editing from an external provider, you have to need to request quotes from the four procured providers in the framework agreement. This is called a “call-off” (avrop in Swedish).  Please note that call-offs to suppliers should be sent well in advance. Requirements and criteria should be reasonable in terms of the given timeframe. When you are going to request offers from the procured providers, the following preparations should first be made.

1. Text

Finalise your text or at least describe the text in as much detail as possible (e.g. title, subject area, type of text, approximate word count, journal to be submitted to). Information about the text, or ideally the text itself, is important for the provider to be able to choose an editor with the appropriate skills and experience. It is possible to request quotes for an unfinished text as long as it is clear that the provider will receive a finished text by an agreed date. Please note that no edits to the text can be made after the agreed date. Word files are standard.

2. Budget and invoice reference

Check with your manager/supervisor/project manager about your editing budget and who will be the invoice reference. It is important that you check with your manager/supervisor/project manager both before the call-off and before the final order is placed.

3. Request for quotes

Below are the points to be included in your request for quotes.

• Level. Choose the "level" of editing you want. For more information on the different editing levels, see "Levels of editing."
• Variant of English. Indicate whether you want British or American spelling/vocabulary/grammar or another variant of English (if the text is in English).
• References. Indicate whether you want the editor to check your references and, if so, according to which reference system.
• Track Changes. Indicate whether you want Track Changes to be used by your editor or if you want the editor to make the changes directly in the text.
• Deadlines. Indicate when you will send your final text to the provider and when you wish to receive the proofread text back. You must also indicate the deadline for providers to submit a quote. Offers received after this date will cannot be accepted.
• Criteria for selecting the provider.  Specify on what basis/criteria a provider/offer will be selected. The following criteria can be specified for the choice of provider: price, time aspects, work samples, references, experience, academic competence in your field, etc. (see the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency's guide for a complete list, Swedish only). Decide which criteria are most important and rank them. At least one criterion should be used.

4. Call-offs

Once points 1-3 are completed, you can request quotes from all the providers. Send all procured providers the text (or description of the text) along with all the information from points 1 to 3. Be sure to include your contact information.

Be clear in your communication with the suppliers that it is the Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency's framework agreement (“Kammarkollegiets avtalsområde”) "Translation and language services" (“Översättning och språktjänster”) that is relevant to your call-off. You can contact the providers in English or Swedish.

5. Notice of purchase

After the deadline for receiving offers from all providers has passed, you can choose a provider. Once you have decided who is to be awarded the contract, you should promptly communicate your choice/decision to all providers with information on the chosen providers and why the others were not awarded the contract.

6. Archiving

Each purchase requires a registration number and all documentation for a call-off should have the same registration number. Contact the Registrar's Office and Archives for more information.

7. Direct procurement

If none of the providers in the framework agreement can provide editing services after following this call-offs procedure, there may be the possibility of direct procurement. There is a special form to use: Template for direct procurement of research text editing. Check with your manager before starting the direct procurement process. Read more information on Direct procurement (Swedish only).