I think it’s interesting that the researchers I notice having these concerns are often those that have a smaller support and feedback network more generally. This probably shows that many researchers are not aware of how much support and feedback successful grant writers typically receive.

Researchers who choose to work with me are often receiving feedback from colleagues, mentors, and university research offices, and are therefore aware of how common – and essential – it is to get rigorous feedback on their grant proposals.

If you’re wondering whether getting support for your research grant (or other writing project for that matter) would make sense for you, this blog offers 3 clear reasons as to why you shouldn’t worry that it’s a form of cheating or unethical practice.

Reason #1: you’re entirely responsible for the intellectual ideas
Let me first clarify that in this blog I’m referring to external writing support and training offered by professionals doing developmental editing work (my own work falls into this category).

In a nutshell, a developmental editor helps authors to build and develop their writing into a piece of work that their targeted audience will find compelling and memorable. Developmental editors specialising in academic writing focus on issues such as the clarity of arguments, presentation of ideas, overall narrative of the text, and how to emphasise the importance of research ideas or findings. (I’ve written a separate blog that explains more about what developmental editors do that you can read here.)

In other words, working with a professional in this category means that you’re entirely responsible for your grant’s intellectual input. This means that you’re not presenting someone else’s work as your own. Instead, the role of professionals doing this work is to act as an engaged, critical reader that helps you to communicate your research idea in a way that its originality and significance can be easily understood by a reviewer (especially a reviewer outside your specific subject area).

Reason #2: it’s considered part of researcher professional development
Working with a developmental editor helps you to improve your skills in effectively crafting a research grant, which are essential to any research career. There is a large gap in training around this skillset, because higher education focuses overwhelmingly on training academics in scientific excellence, but neglects to offer substantial training in how to strategically frame your ideas specifically for grant reviewer audiences.

Around 75% of the researchers I work with use university professional development funds to pay for my services, which require approval from their departments. I think this is the clearest indication that working with a developmental editor or consultant on your research grant counts as professional development, rather than being a form of cheating.

Reason #3: universities often hire consultants & consultancy firms to do this work
Another fact that’s often unknown to a lot of researchers is that it’s common practice for universities to hire external consultancy firms or individual consultants to offer reviews of their researchers’ grant applications. In these cases, universities are looking for expertise that doesn’t exist in their in-house research offices (which usually don’t have the capacity to offer feedback at the level of detail offered by developmental editor services). Once again, I think this helps to clearly illustrate that this type of service is considered legitimate and valuable by universities, and is widely accessed by many research grant applicants.