A priori, every person, when applying to any company that provides certain services, must understand with whom they are about to cooperate. For this, it is important to seriously study the activities of the organisation. Companies working in the field of scientific publications should not be an exception.
In this article, we have gathered the most important initial data that scientists need to pay attention to upon searching for and deciding on cooperation with consulting organisations. The material will help you choose the company, after working with which you will be satisfied and will feel free to recommend it to your colleagues.
Contents
1. Legal address and location of the organisation
3. Social activity of the organisation
5. Competence
6. Feedback
Legal address and location of the organisation
A company that positions itself as a serious enterprise must be officially registered in the territory where it renders its services, as well as have its representative office or rent premises where the company's employees work on customer projects.
To make sure of the existence of the company, its intentions, activities, make an appointment in the office. There you will meet the specialists with whom you correspond in person, see the conditions they work in.
The office is a good indicator of the way the company treats its business. If management invests in creating a comfortable environment for its customers and employees, it means that the organisation is focused on development and long-term cooperation.
The company team
It is important to understand that the company does not consist of 1 person who performs the full scope of publishing works, sitting at a laptop in daily co-working. The publishing process in international journals requires a responsible, serious approach, and a large team of specialists involved in projects, namely: communication managers, technical editors, specialists in negotiations with journals, translators, accountant, lawyer, management, etc. If you need assurances that your project will be completed, you need to understand who you work with, and what the scale of the company is.
In the photo: the workflow of the sales department and marketing department of the Scientific Publications company
Social activity of the organisation
The business card of each organisation is its website. Take the time to study it, whether it consists of one page or is a full version with useful and structured information. Whether all the necessary information about the activities of the organisation is available, the company's contacts, address.
Find out which photos are used, stock or "live", with real employees of the company.
Find out the social policy pursued by the company, whether it conducts online and offline events (webinars, seminars, conferences).
Check how long and how regularly the company's blogs and social networks are maintained.
Legal information
Verify whether the company enters into a formal agreement, which provides guarantees of cooperation. Are the client's interests protected?
What is the legal form of the company, does it pay taxes? Most information about the legal entity is publicly available.
Competence
Employees, and especially the owner(s) of the company must understand and know all the nuances of the field to render quality services. A person who, for example, previously worked as a consultant in a home appliance store cannot be a manager in a company.
Scientific publications are a complex and specific field that makes provision for certain requirements and legal framework. When providing publishing services, the company's specialists must thoroughly understand all the subtleties, trends, innovations to help the scientist solve their problem in the best way.
In the photo: meeting of management and founders of the Scientific Publications company
Feedback
We strongly recommend that you do not hesitate to ask for recommendations and feedback on cooperation with the company. A publishing broker who has been working in the market for a long time will always go to a meeting and will be able to arrange for one of the employees of your research organisation to be able to provide a personal assessment of the quality of work.
Our company has been working in the field of scientific publications for 5 years. During this time, we have often been approached by scholars who have suffered from poor quality publishing services by non-professional companies. Our experts, analysing the situation, always helped correct it and realise the unresolved scientific goals of the scientist.
With this article, the Scientific Publications company would like to address all scientists. When choosing a scientific consulting service, carefully verify the organisation with which you plan to cooperate. In addition, we encourage other intermediary companies to operate honestly, diligently, and correctly. Help scientists successfully implement their scientific and publishing tasks, creating trust and conditions for the development of professional scientific consulting.
IMPORTANT!
Unfortunately, sometimes we are faced with the fact that the reputation, achievements, and successfully implemented projects of the Scientific Publications company are exploited by other organisations. We ask scientists to track such messages with a similar positioning, so as not to fall prey to fraudsters. If you come across this type of statement, contact us as soon as possible. Use one of the communication channels (phones, e-mail, online chat on the website, a personal visit to the company's office). Then we will be able to help detect the fact of fraud and protect your interests.
As a reminder, we have recently released an article "Why is a competent translation into academic English so important for a scientific article?"
