My English skills are hurting my chances in academic publishing — how can I improve?

Illustration: David Parkins The problem Dear Nature , I’m a biologist originally from India doing my postdoc at a German institution, and I aspire to run my own laboratory one day. However, because I’m from a Hindi-speaking background, navigating the English-dominated scientific-publishing world has been challenging. Some years ago, my former supervisor and I submitted a paper to a small, low-tier journal and it was immediately rejected on the grounds that the English was not good enough. With the help of a professional editing service — which cost roughly €600 (US$700) — the paper was eventually accepted by an international journal. But in my current position in Germany, grants don’t typically cover the cost of professional manuscript editing, so I would have to pay for such services out of my own pocket. I feel uncomfortable asking colleagues to proofread my manuscripts; everyone is so busy and it’s hard to find someone I can trust and who understands the science well enough to advise me on the language. I have great data, but I just don’t have the confidence to write my own papers without outside support. I do use some artificial-intelligence tools — a writing assistant for spelling and grammar and a chatbot for polishing paragraphs — but I would like some guidance on best practices and what else I can do without having to pay for professional editing services. …