The Subject Matter Expert Controversy

An important point to understand is that a copyeditor need not be a subject matter expert,

or SME, in the discipline discussed in a manuscript to successfully perform the copyediting.

This idea is controversial. Many publishers disregard the fact that the copyeditor's concern is the language

and the way in which the matter is presented rather than the content itself. An author may discuss

building a nuclear submarine. The copyeditor doesn't need to understand anything about nuclear

submarines to copyedit that text. In reality, an SME can be less effective as a copyeditor

because they will invariably be too interested in the content to notice the flaws in the

presentation. In the next installment, we'll look at copyediting levels. Stay tuned.