postgradproofreader.co.uk

What It Is

Post-Graduate Proof-Reader is a UK-based academic proofreading and feedback service founded in 2018, aimed at postgraduate students and academic authors. It is not a typical SaaS platform; instead, it is a small team of qualitative researchers and proofreaders providing human services through forms, email, and tracked revisions in Word documents.

Core Features and Collaboration

Its core service is academic English proofreading, covering grammar, spelling, punctuation, flow of expression, and readability. Depending on the service level purchased, it can also provide feedback on structure, methodology, and analysis. Its key differentiator is that the team has doctoral-level and qualitative research experience, with particular familiarity in social science methods such as IPA, thematic analysis, and classic grounded theory. Delivery relies on Word Track Changes, with support for brief email Q&A. Short video calls may be arranged in certain cases, but the service clearly states that it is not thesis supervision or long-term emotional support.

Pricing, Payment, and Delivery

The website does not publish prices or fixed packages. Users need to submit a project brief and timeline to receive a quote. For larger manuscripts, around a 50% deposit is typically required upfront, with the balance paid after completion. In terms of turnaround, the site says it can usually read around 5,000 words per day, so a 15,000-word document takes about 3 days from the start date. However, actual delivery also depends on the waiting list, and fixed slots cannot be booked before the manuscript is ready. Payments are supported via BACS transfer and Square; PayPal is not accepted.

Security, Tools, and Compliance

The website provides a privacy policy stating that it collects names, email addresses, and project-related information, and that it will not sell, distribute, or lease personal information unless permitted or legally required. Users may request to view, correct, or delete their information. Grammarly may be used during proofreading for final grammar and consistency checks, with a statement that texts processed under its UK account will not be used to train AI models. Users can also request fully manual proofreading.

Pros, Cons, and Who It’s For

The strengths are its deep understanding of academic contexts, detailed human feedback, and strong qualitative research expertise. It is well suited to PhD theses, master’s dissertations, research reports, and qualitative methods chapters. The downsides are the lack of SaaS-style online collaboration, permission management, APIs, and automation; pricing is not transparent, and scheduling is constrained by human capacity. There is no clear information on accessibility from China or cross-border payment availability, and network performance is unknown. Chinese users who need local payment options and Chinese-language support may want to compare Scribbr, Editage, Enago, or local academic editing providers.