Light editing support and iThenticate review are available for eligible NIH-authored works and works by authors from select HHS agencies, as staffing capacity allows.
The NIH Library provides light editing support for individual publications and presentations authored by NIH staff and resulting from work conducted at NIH. Eligible work authored by staff from select HHS agencies may also be supported. The NIH Library also offers iThenticate plagiarism-checking for eligible unpublished works. iThenticate identifies text overlap with other sources; it does not determine whether plagiarism has occurred. Services are provided at no cost and are subject to staff availability.
Editing and iThenticate Policies
Editing Service
- Submit requests through the NIH Library’s Editing or Plagiarism Review Request form. Once a request is assigned, NIH Library staff will use the information in the ticket to contact the author and request the document for service.
- Submit a separate request for each document. Documents should be clean, with Track Changes turned off and comments removed.
- The document must include a title, the authors' names, and the institutions on the first page of the document. Failure to include any of these will pause the request until an updated document is received.
- Light editing addresses spelling, word choice, grammar, punctuation, and consistency with the target style. It is not comprehensive scientific or substantive editing.
- Edited manuscripts are returned with suggested changes using MS Word’s Track Changes, which allows authors to easily review and accept or reject edits.
Types of Works Eligible for Editing
As staffing capacity allows, light editing is available for NIH-authored works resulting from work conducted at NIH and eligible works authored by staff from select HHS agencies. Eligible works may include:
- Manuscripts
- Book chapters
- Protocols
- Case studies
- Reviews
- Posters
- PowerPoint slides
- Conference abstracts
Types of Works Not Eligible for Editing
- Alien of Extraordinary Ability, "green card" application letters
- Blog posts
- Congressional reports
- Grant applications
- Job or school applications
- Works that do not result from work conducted at NIH or eligible work at a select HHS agency
- Resumes, CVs, personal statements, cover letters, or biographical sketches
- Theses or dissertations
- Website content
- Whole books
Plagiarism-checking Service (iThenticate)
- Submit iThenticate requests through the NIH Library’s Editing or Plagiarism Review request form.
- iThenticate is limited to eligible unpublished works for which the requester is an author. NIH-authored work must result from work conducted at NIH; eligible HHS-authored work may also be supported.
- Requests are fulfilled as staffing capacity allows.
- NIH Library staff will provide the author with an iThenticate Plagiarism report but will not interpret the report or determine whether plagiarism has occurred.