Editorial requirements for your research thesis can vary widely and are often determined by your supervisor.

An important first step in working with an editor is communicating your requirements. Think of this as providing a brief.

An editor will want to know the style you have used throughout your thesis (e.g., an author-date style such as APA, or a notes and bibliography style such as Chicago) and whether the text contains much visual data, such as tables and figures.

They will also likely ask for a word count which, depending on the university, department or supervisor’s preferences, may or may not include your reference list or bibliography, footnotes or endnotes, figures, front matter, appendices and other structural elements of your thesis.

An editor may request a sample of your thesis in order to better gauge the level of work required. This is especially so if your thesis integrates words from a non-Roman language.

Your supervisor will most likely have requested that your work conform to your university’s style guide. However, decisions around footnoting and referencing style are often left to the student. The important thing is that the style is consistent throughout.

The role of copy-editing and proofreading has been defined as ‘identifying errors in, and correcting, the presentation of the text so as to conform with standard usage and conventions’.1

A thesis is substantively the product of original research and as such requires that your editor follow established guidelines (e.g., the Australian Standards for Editing Practice) which set out the acceptable level of editorial intervention in the text. So, for ethical reasons, your editor will be required to carefully moderate their input.

Most institutions now require that the use of an editor be acknowledged in the front matter of the thesis. Additionally, further acknowledgement may be required if the editor’s academic background is similar to the student’s area of study.

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1. University of Sydney, Thesis and Examination of Higher Degrees by Research Procedures 2020, https://www.sydney.edu.au/policies/showdoc.aspx?recnum=PDOC2014/375&RendNum=0