"Companion to the Roman Army"

[philsidnell]

... freelance copy-editors ... are not necessarily even interested, let alone specialists in, the subject and could never pick up an error of fact like this

... which is why publishers like Blackwell commission "expert" editors, who are supposed to invite trustworthy contributors on board.


That's why I was careful to make it clear that I wasn't referring to academic publishers.

Well, mistakes happen, it's almost impossible to avoid them.

Indeed. This is why most conscientious authors attempt to have a colleague read over their work prior to publication! (Not always possible, I know ...)

Absolutely, most do. Errors can creep into any lengthy piece of text, sometimes at typesetting stage, which could be after the expert friend/colleague has seen it, or, in a commercial publisher, the period allowed after typesetting for corrections may not allow the author time to pass it around friends. I wasn't being complacent about errors. All I was really saying was that it would be really useful to have people who had a good foundation in the subject area to do the final proofreading stage. I hope nobody thought I was being sarcastic when I said some RAT members should think about doing it.

Phil