Chapter 15: Copyediting, Fact-Checking, and Rights Review

Keep Three Checks Distinct

Copyediting improves consistency and expression. Fact-checking compares claims with evidence. Rights review examines the conditions attached to material you propose to reuse. Completing one does not establish that the others are complete. Work from a stable manuscript and record changes that affect meaning.

Fictional teaching case: The campus-transit records and outlet briefs in Chapter 1 are invented practice material. They are not publishable evidence or real submission policies.

Check Numbers and Their Meaning

The increase from 1,000 to 1,200 is 200 boardings, or 20 per cent of the starting total. It is not evidence of 200 additional individual students. Eight of twenty is 40 per cent of the respondents, not 40 per cent of all students. Recheck both arithmetic and the nouns attached to it.

The timetable comparison is equally specific: 20:10 precedes 20:30 by twenty minutes. That establishes a scheduling mismatch for the reported class ending; it does not establish what alternative transport respondents used or whether every relevant class ended then.

For real work, verify quotations against the source, names and roles at the relevant date, dates and chronology, units, denominators, and the fit between citations and sentences. A source containing similar words may still fail to support the claim you wrote.

Review Reused Material Deliberately

For each external image, substantial extract, table, or other reused item, record its source, intended use, available licence or permission information, and any unresolved conditions. Attribution alone does not answer every reuse question. Avoid making a universal legal conclusion from the material’s online availability; seek appropriate review where the answer is unclear.

This guide’s fictional text and figures are teaching material, not a substitute for acquiring real research evidence. If you replace them with actual material, repeat the source and reuse checks for that material.

Try It Yourself

Correct these two sentences: “The change attracted 200 new students” and “Forty per cent of students could not get home.” Explain which parts are unsupported and write replacements using A–C. Then create a reuse record for an image you might include, leaving unknown conditions unresolved.

Check Your Work

Are quantities paired with the right population and unit? Are quotations exact and interpretations labelled? Have factual corrections reached the title, abstract, and captions? A manuscript with a material unresolved evidence or reuse issue is not ready for release.