Authors often ask copy editors, “Why was my text changed?” There may be other related questions, like “I prefer British spellings” or “I don’t want items put in a bulleted list, I like numbered lists.” These authors are running up against “house style” and, unfortunately, must accept the changes. House style is established by publishers so that their books or journals will be consistent. This is a type of branding but, more importantly, consistency creates clarity, which helps the reader.
Specific rules about usage, formatting, and best practices are collected in style guides. Among the most familiar general resources are:
- the Chicago Manual of Style;
- the Associated Press Stylebook;
- the New Oxford Style Manual (incorporating Hart’s Rules);
- the MLA Handbook; and
- the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
There are also specialized guides (The Bluebook for legal citations or The ACS Style Guide for chemistry, with a new edition scheduled for publication in 2020). Publishers might select one source and follow it strictly, or choose a reference guide and create an in-house supplement for their copy editors tailored to a specific industry, discipline, or subject.
Some publishers provide thorough instructions for manuscript preparation (Oxford University Press or Nature), while others offer short summaries with links for deeper dives (Yale University Press or CRC Press). These sources aren’t exhaustive, and no publisher expects an author to correctly format every reference citation or make sure comma usage is consistent. Only after the author’s manuscript has been accepted will copyediting be done; mechanical, human, or both. This is one of the author services provided by a publisher.
Some of the first things the copy editor will look at include: rules about lists; numbers versus numerals; citation requirements; reference formatting; and spelling (for instance, does this publisher use “e-mail” or “email”? Do they use British or North American spelling and usage?). The copy editor who works on your manuscript isn’t trying to change your text, only to make it match the publisher’s house style for consistency and clarity. Fortunately, none of these changes should affect the author’s meaning. A trained copy editor respects the author’s voice and prose and feels an obligation to retain those. Changes are only made to follow the requirements of a style guide, thus honoring and finding balance between the author and the publisher.
