Oh ratings – don’t we love them. We love to rate, and we love to receive ratings. With the world in your pocket it is hard not to start comparing your holiday destination, the cheapest taxi driver and even the most interesting prospect for your love life. After all, we only want the best and we’ll keep searching until we find that golden egg.
Finding the golden egg: when you’re searching for something so perfect that it’s rare to find… or maybe doesn’t even exist.
But what if there is no golden egg? Everyone is different and perceptions are very personal.
We’re not trying to claim that we have this golden egg. Instead we are going to help you in your search. Because with a platform over 1500 experts, it can be hard to decide who’s best for your job, your research, maybe even your lifework. How can you not be picky?
Therefore, we encourage you to be critical. Surely, all our Experts are Academics, but if something seems too good to be true – it often is. (unfortunately).
For example, we recently received this e-mail from an academic who was clearly upset after using Peerwith for her service request: (personal details have been edited/removed for privacy reasons)
This author had posted a Language Editing request of 3000 words and spoke to several Experts about the job. She ended up choosing a non-native English speaker for an English Language Editing job..…
The Expert did however do more than he was expected to do. Besides Language Editing he also performed some additional tasks like writing a cover letter, enhancing the quality of the figures, preparing responses to the editor and adding references and disclaimers to the bibliography. He even offered to, if the author decided to rewrite a certain section, to proofread the paper (as a new service).
So even though the Expert clearly had the best intentions and already took his service to the next level, he could not perform an extensive editing job as he was only requested to language edit the paper in the first place. Apparently, it seemed that an additional proofreading job was necessary for this paper and should have been included, which was also suggested by the Expert – however the author decided otherwise.
We’ve learned that when dealing with humans, dealing with very specific requests, it is almost impossible to meet expectations for the full 100%. That’s why we find great importance in offering a wide range of experts, so if you take the time to find the right person for your request, you are pretty much ensured to receive positive feedback on your work by the world’s most renowned journals.
