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11. The ethics of editing

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And so to what could be considered one of the most important aspects of editing – ethics. As editors we have a duty to behave in a way that upholds the profession. We need to be totally trustworthy; we need to think carefully about whether or not to accept jobs that may be outside our comfort zone; we need to be reliable about meeting deadlines; and we need to be honest about our own ability to undertake jobs. Unethical behaviour is soon spotted and dealt with.

Ethics is a serious matter, and unethical behaviour by just a few people can undermine the whole editing profession.

Some aspects of ethics are fundamental and are included here. However, every profession, industry or trade has its own behavioural standards that may need to be considered. Think about further ethical considerations in your own area.

The Macquarie Dictionary provides three definitions of ethics: ‘a system of moral principles, by which human actions and proposals may be judged good or bad or right or wrong’; ‘the rules of conduct recognised in respect of a particular class of human actions’; and ‘moral principles, as of an individual’.

Ethical principles are laid down in many organisations and professions, and members are expected to adhere to them. They may be called codes of behaviour, ethical guidelines, or standards of conduct. They all boil down to a set of principles to help members do the right thing by their clients and fellow professionals – and in some cases for the ‘public good’.

In the editing profession, there are many such principles – some written and some just ‘understood’ as ‘the decent thing’.

Ethics in academic editing

In Australia, we have special obligations when editing students’ papers and theses. These are set out in the ‘Guidelines for editing research theses’. The main principles are as follows:

 We may edit on hard copy or on screen; however, if we edit on screen, we must return the marked work in such a way that the student cannot blindly ‘accept’ alterations suggested by the editor. The student needs to decide 42 whether the alterations are appropriate in the context or not. One way to ensure this is to send the work back to the student as a PDF file.

 We may not perform structural edits, but must stick to what is covered by Standards D (‘Language and illustrations’) and E (‘Completeness and consistency’) in the Australian standards for editing practice. Structural edits, apart from broad recommendations for attention, are the province of the student and the student’s academic supervisor.

 The student must acknowledge the editing and the editor in case the examiners wish to check the extent of editing performed. It is possible that the quality of the student’s work could be greatly affected by the editor’s efforts, and we need to remember that it is the student’s original work that is being examined.

These principles are available in full from the Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) at http://iped-editors.org/About_editing/Editing_theses.aspx.

If you are asked to edit papers for students of overseas universities, it is important to find out what degree of editing is allowable in the particular institution. See also Chat 10 ‘Editing students’ work’.

General editing ethics

Some editors set out their ethical stance on their websites or in their expressions of interest in a job. This usually amounts to a short statement about confidentiality and privacy issues, work standards, policy on accepting or not accepting jobs, and perhaps their proposed action in the event of a conflict of interest or other difficulty. It helps the client to get a full picture of the sense of professionalism of the editor.

Confidentiality

It should be obvious that an editor who is a member of a respected professional society of editors would be trustworthy. However, authors are often understandably nervous about handing over manuscripts to total strangers. They need to be assured that you are not going to discuss their work with anyone other than the team working on it, and that if you don’t want to undertake the work or don’t get the contract, you will return or securely trash all the material sent to you.

43 Clients are also entitled to know that you don’t pass on their details to anyone else for any reason. There are people who pass on such information, including mailing lists, without authorisation, and who think it is all right to discuss current jobs with other clients. This is not only unethical gossip but may also be a breach of privacy laws.

Work standards

It is not possible to be skilled in all areas of editing, and your client is entitled to know that you have the necessary skills for the job under consideration. It is unprofessional to pretend to a client that you have a level of skill, or very specific skills, that you do not have. Own up, and be willing to develop skills on the job, but only if the client is agreeable.

Accepting or not accepting jobs

There are some jobs that are just not for you. If you are asked to quote for a job that you know you will hate or that you don’t have time for or that you honestly don’t know how to do, forget it.

If the potential client has asked you to ‘just cast an eye over this for typos’ and you find that the document needs a major rewrite, be honest in your appraisal. You can’t do a substantive edit on a proofreading budget. And it would be unethical to do merely the requested check for typos when you know that the manuscript will fall in a heap at the next hurdle – publication.

You may decide to accept a job, in good faith, and find later that there is a conflict of interest. For example, editors are often asked to edit material that conflicts with their own views on a subject. It is not our business to try to ‘correct’ the client’s views while correcting their grammar or their writing style. If you can’t distance yourself from your own views, don’t take the job on. The ethical thing to do is to immediately inform the client and offer to withdraw from the contract.

Meeting deadlines

Don’t promise to keep deadlines that are not achievable for you. If you fall behind, you cause the whole publication process to fall behind. The ethical editor, faced with an honest delay because of sickness or a private emergency, will contact the client immediately, apologise, and offer to withdraw.

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Other forms of unacceptable behaviour

Apart from the points above that could be addressed in a statement of your ethical stance, there are other examples of behaviour that are, to me, unacceptable:

 Taking on work at a level at which you are not either qualified or sufficiently experienced. We all have to start somewhere, but it is bad for the whole profession when you take on work which you have no hope of doing at a satisfactory level of competence. The client will be unhappy, and is quite likely to complain to the editing organisation to which the editor belongs.

 Claiming expertise that you don’t have. Bluff will get you nowhere in the long run. We all have to learn our craft the hard way – through training in editing; through working with a mentor until we are confident; and through years of practice, working up from simple jobs to huge complex jobs. Clients can see through bluff.

 Actually working on a document and charging a fee for a job that you know is not up to scratch. This is downright dishonest, but it happens. Clients have brought documents to me for re-editing after an ‘amateur editor’ has failed to find even obvious grammatical errors, spelling errors, typos and so on, and has not given any advice on plainly necessary restructuring, page layout and placement of illustrations. That level of slapdash behaviour really bothers me.

 Quoting a very low fee (or even no fee) just to get a job. This is equally dishonest. It downgrades the value of editing as a whole. The only ‘freebies’ should be for your favourite local charity that has no money anyway. Everything else should be paid for at a businesslike rate. This includes editing student theses and dissertations. These days, funds are often available to graduate students to help them pay for professional editing – you should charge your regular fee. If you don’t know what to charge, ask a senior editor for guidance and then work out what your effort is worth. Don’t undersell yourself – most freelance editors undercharge, but it is possible to gauge the ‘going rate’ for various jobs and various levels of edit.

The late Janet Mackenzie set out a number of additional areas of concern that editors ought to be aware of, including that the editor has ‘a three-way responsibility to the publisher, the author and the reader’ (The editor’s companion, 2nd edn, p 41). It is sometimes difficult to meet everyone’s needs, but you need to try to keep a sense of balance throughout a job.

45 Ethics is an enormous subject. This introduction to it may provide something to think about next time you are asked to quote for an editing job that is a bit out of your comfort zone.