# Transparent Attribution of Contributions to Research: Aligning Guidelines to Real-Life Practices
## 3 Editorial Support for Research Reports  
Non-author professionals who contribute to the text in ways that, although sometimes substantial, do not merit authorship have little power to require acknowledgment, and under certain circumstances some may actually prefer not to be named [37]. These situations particularly involve people who provide various types of professional writing assistance, here termed \"editorial support\". As noted above, the fact that this support is not always acknowledged does not mean that it is rarely used. Although no data are publicly available on the number of research articles that benefit from editorial support before acceptance, these services are described in a large body of literature going back over 50 years (reviewed in [13]). Editorial support for research communication--excluding \"convenience editing\", i.e., editorial help from authors' friends or native-English-speaking colleagues as a favor [39]--involves professional editing, translation and writing. (For more information, see \"Types of language services\" at [[https://www.metmeetings.org/en/how-to-choose-a-language-professional:799](https://www.metmeetings.org/en/how-to-choose-a-language-professional:799)]([https://www.metmeetings.org/en/how-to-choose-a-language-professional:799](https://www.metmeetings.org/en/how-to-choose-a-language-professional:799))). Editors who help researchers and other authors make their manuscripts ready for submission and peer review are called \"authors' editors\" [8], and they provide different types, or \"levels\", of editing as needed [13] (pp. 33-49), [40], [40]. _Language editing_ is mainly done to correct grammar, syntax, spelling, punctuation, and word choice. _Substantive editing_ aims to improve the content and organization of the text, in addition to correcting language errors. _Developmental editing_, in research publishing, involves advising authors on how to strengthen data presentation, text structure and organization, and how to avoid major problems with the writing that are likely to lead, or have already led, to rejection [41]. Researchers unable to write fluently in the language of publication (usually English) rely on translation. Sometimes, editing is done in the process of translation to correct internal inconsistencies or contradictions in the original material, or to ensure that the translated text is free from syntactic or stylistic features that readers might find distracting or inappropriate [42; 43]. Irrespective of whether a text will be translated, edited or both, the work can only begin on an advanced draft, because authors' editors and translators do not produce the initial draft. Editorial support professionals who do produce the original draft from researchers' protocols and data are called \"writers\" (e.g., medical writers or technical writers); their drafts are critically reviewed, amended and commented on by the researchers, who collaborate with the writer to produce the final version [5; 44]. To ensure that authors retain intellectual responsibility for the content and to avoid ghostwriting, medical writers' associations have issued professional practice guidelines [5; 45; 46]. Why aren't authors' editors, translators and writers systematically acknowledged for their editorial support? Insight on the reasons comes from discussions among professionals in the field, most recently at the 14 th meeting of Mediterranean Editors and Translators ([[https://www.metmeetings.org/en/programme:1071](https://www.metmeetings.org/en/programme:1071)]([https://www.metmeetings.org/en/programme:1071](https://www.metmeetings.org/en/programme:1071))) in October 2018. A moderated panel discussion [37] and a report on a survey of 131 freelance authors' editors [38] revealed that acknowledgment is often eschewed by these professionals.