Copyedit QC - Scribe

Check the following to confirm the quality of copyedited documents.

Note: Some checklist items are intentionally vague, to be used as catch-all checks, or may not be applicable to a particular project.

Consult the appropriate style guide (CMS, APA) as well as individual publisher guidelines and project specifications.

File Type and File Naming

Is the file saved as .docx?

If multiple files, are they named properly (to sort in order)?

Scribing

Does the document meet the requirements of a WFDW scribing?

This includes proper style usage and presence of structure indicators as needed.

Has the scribing of the file changed since its initial set-up or a sample was produced?

Compare

Does comparing the current file to the file from the previous stage reveal any problems or errors?

Special Characters and Digital Hub Conversion Alerts

Are all characters Unicode?

Upload the .docx file to the Digital Hub to view a list of all special characters in the document.

Does processing the file to .sam, IDTT, or ScML in the Digital Hub reveal any errors?

Example: Processing to another file format may reveal mismatches in footnotes or endnotes.

Do the counts of notes styles match?

If footnotes are used, the counts of fn, fnnum, and fnrefs should match.

If endnotes are used, the counts of en, ennum, and enrefs should match.

Style Sheet

Is the style sheet complete?

Content Presence and Order

Is all content present in the file(s)?

Is all content in the proper order?

If content is not yet present, have query marks been added or blank files created?

Examples: copyright, design credits, and index content often come later in the publishing process.

Does the SAI’s Mark for Editing cleanup option reveal any errors for potentially hidden text?

Note: The Mark for Editing tool is also used for other checklist items.

Design and Series Consistency

Is the copyedit consistent with an existing design or previous books in a series?

If a new design is being created, the copyediting choices should be coordinated with the design choices (and vice versa).

Examples: Confirm if chapter numbers should be numerals or spelled out; confirm that elements and phrasing are handled consistently across a series.

Front Matter

Is the Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication Data present?

Does the Table of Contents (TOC) include all required sections?

The TOC should include TK materials like the index.

Do the TOC listings match the corresponding text?

TOC listings should match chapter titles and heads in the body for wording, italics or other character style variations, and capitalization.

Note: Publishing conventions can result in some valid mismatches, such as “List of Figures” in a TOC pairing with “Figures” as the chapter title in the book.

Do the TOC levels correspond with the header levels in the book?

Edits

Are the edits consistent with an existing copyedit sample?

Does reviewing tracked changes reveal any errors?

Does spot checking the edits reveal any errors?

Have any edits interfered with the author’s voice or intentions?

Have edits taken into account the intended audience and the readers’ expected prerequisite knowledge? Example: Defining or not defining terms as needed

Has the copyedit met the criteria as laid out in the transmittal instructions or publisher guidelines?

Are there more or fewer changes than anticipated based on the desired outcome?

Is the file locked?

If the file is proceeding to the author for review, lock the tracked changes.

If the file is proceeding to conversion to another format, all tracked changes should be accepted and Track Changes turned off.

Rendering (General)

Are all styles rendering in the appropriate color?

Are there any colors present that are not part of the Scribe Word template?

Has all highlighting been removed?

Are foreign terms formatted correctly?

Has special alignment been noted?

Example: If poetry or written language content requires special alignment in a typeset or e-book, instructions should be noted and a reference file provided.

Quotations

Have quotations been changed in any way?

Block Quotations and Run-in Quotations

Does the SAI’s Mark for Editing cleanup option reveal any errors?

Are text and punctuation introducing block and run-in quotations consistent and following the rules of the style guide?

Epigraphs

Have epigraphs been handled consistently?

Have quotation marks been removed around epigraph text?

Are em dashes used in front of epigraph tails?

Comments

Does reviewing the comments reveal any errors?

Are there query marks or comments that should not be present?

Spell Check

Does running spell check reveal any errors?

Punctuation

Does the SAI’s Mark for Editing cleanup option reveal any errors?

Check for unmatched paired punctuation.

Check for missing paragraph-ending punctuation.

Are there any instances of doubled quotation marks?

Are quotations within quotations appearing correctly?

Is punctuation following italic, bold, and bold-italic consistently rendered and following the rule of the style guide?

Do quotation marks and apostrophes face the proper direction?

Are the prime (ʹ) and double prime (ʺ) characters used for feet and inches?

Are hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes used consistently and correctly?

Lists

Is text introducing lists consistent and following the rules of the style guide?

Are list items handled consistently?

Figures and Illustrations

Are figures referenced consistently and following the rules of the style guide?

Are figure call-outs formatted correctly and appearing in the proper locations?

Are figure heads and captions handled consistently?

Is alt text present and accurate?

Tables and Tabs

Are tables referenced consistently and following the rules of the style guide?

Are tables built as Word tables?

Do tables conform to the style guide’s specifications?

Are tabs used consistently?

Multiple tabs should not be used to force alignment within Word.

Are table heads and table data handled consistently?

Recurring Elements

Are recurring elements handled consistently and following the rules of the style guide?

Examples: sidebars, pull quotes, boxes

Bibliography/References, Notes, and Glossaries

Are references and parenthetical citations formatted consistently and following the rules of the style guide?

Are footnotes and endnotes formatted consistently and following the rules of the style guide?

If blind endnotes, have key terms or phrases been identified, and do they match between the body and the note paragraphs?

Are all glossary paragraphs formatted consistently, and do the glossary terms in the body match the terms in the glossary paragraphs?

URLs

Do URLs link to the intended locations?

Do any URLs contain prohibited characters?

Examples: em dashes, en dashes, or spaces.

Convert the file to .sam and run the following regular expression.

Search:

(<url( href[^>]*)?>[^<]*)([\x{2013}\x{2014} ])

ISBNs, Phone Numbers, and Zip Codes

Do ISBNs, phone numbers, and zip codes contain any incorrect characters (such as en dashes or em dashes)?

This search will find ISBNs that use hyphens and/or dashes in a .sam file:

Search:

([\d]+)([\x{2013}\x{2014}-])([\d])([\x{2013}\x{2014}-])([\d]+)([\x{2013}\x{2014}-])([\d]+)([\x{2013}\x{2014}-])([\d])

Abbreviations and Acronyms

Are abbreviations and acronyms handled consistently and following the style guide?

Are first instances of abbreviations or acronyms spelled out?

Capitalization

Does capitalization meet the requirements of the style guide?

Cross-References

Are all cross-references accurate?

Examples: page, chapter, section, figure, table, part

Numbers and Dates

Are numerals used or spelled out consistently and following the style guide?

Indexes

See the Index QC Checklist.

Text Checks

Convert the .docx to .sam in the Digital Hub.

Do the file stats for .docx and .sam reveal any errors?

Do the searches from the Regular Expressions Resource reveal any errors?