Jacqueline Harvey

Advanced Professional Member
Location Aberystwyth, Wales
Email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Web www.jacquelineharvey.net
LinkedIn Jacqueline Harvey

About me

I have over 35 years’ experience of copyediting and proofreading different kinds of publications, including academic and ‘popular’ books, reference works (e.g. dictionaries, encyclopedias and bibliographies), illustrated books, exhibition catalogues, journals, reports and websites. My expertise is mainly in the humanities and social sciences, but I can work in most non-technical areas.

The main services I offer are copyediting, proofreading, web editing and proofing, and transcription. I can also rewrite and repurpose or restyle any document for print or online circulation.

Having been freelance since 1986, I joined the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP) in 1989, shortly after its inception. In 2012 I became an Advanced Professional Member of what is now the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP).

My clients have included Bodleian Library Publishing, Bristol University Press/Policy Press, The British Library, Cambridge University Press, Council of Europe, Ideas on Fire, Manchester University Press, Oxford University Press, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Polity Press, SPCK, Thames & Hudson, TMF Group and Wiley Blackwell.

Services

The main services I offer are:

  • copyediting
  • proofreading
  • web editing and proofing
  • transcription
  • simple indexing.

Subjects

I work in most humanities and social science subjects, including:

  • anthropology
  • archaeology
  • art and art history
  • Asian studies (especially south-east Asia)
  • biblical studies and theology
  • biographies
  • children’s literature
  • Christianity
  • communication (media) studies
  • cultural studies
  • diaries/letters
  • dictionaries
  • education
  • English and world literature
  • film and theatre
  • geography (human)
  • history
  • literary criticism and theory
  • literary fiction (incl. scholarly editions)
  • literary history
  • philosophy
  • photography
  • politics
  • popular science
  • sociology
  • travel.

Clients

Past and current clients have included:

  • Bodleian Library Publishing
  • Bristol University Press/Policy Press
  • The British Library
  • ​Council of Europe
  • Ideas on Fire
  • Manchester University Press
  • Oxford University Press
  • Palgrave Macmillan
  • Paul Mellon Centre
  • ​SPCK & IVP
  • Thames & Hudson
  • Wiley Blackwell.

Testimonials

Most importantly, thank you tremendously for all your excellent work on the script over the past months. I appreciate you’ve undertaken a mammoth task with getting a book of this complexity into proper order. Thank you for your supreme attention to detail and the clarity that you’ve brought throughout, which have proved absolutely invaluable for transforming the script into its happy publishable version. I pass on thanks from Maridowa Williams also, who … is equally impressed by your level of engagement with the project at this crucial stage.

Ian Dudley and Maridowa Williams (eds), Aubrey Williams: Art, Histories, Futures (Paul Mellon Centre, 2024)


My writing was improved immeasurably by Jacqueline’s work. I have published several books before but never received quite this level of insight, attention to detail, and scrupulousness. Every intervention was communicated clearly and sensitively. High class copyediting.
 

Mark Crinson, author of Shock City: Image and Architecture in Industrial Manchester (Paul Mellon Centre, 2022)

Jacqueline is one of the most dependable and accurate copy-editors I have ever had the pleasure to work with. She is diligent about following a brief and at the same time is able to exercise her considerable judgement, experience and expertise when necessary. She knows her craft very well and thoroughly engages with every project. She is reliable in her communications and in keeping me apprised of issues that arise. I can always be sure that when I place work with her she will do a professional job.​

Hazel Bird, freelance project manager, Wiley Blackwell

I’ve worked with Jacqueline on a number of projects over several years and have always found her to be a first-class editor and valued colleague – thoughtful and attentive to detail, an excellent communicator and with reliably good judgement about all aspects of complex and demanding texts. Given her expertise across a range of humanities and social sciences subjects, Jacqueline’s work is certainly appreciated by authors and I recommend her warmly to scholars and publishers in need of editorial help.

Robert Davies, freelance project manager for University of London Press

I have worked on several unusual and quite challenging projects with Jacqueline, including a book written in contemporary blank verse and two edited volumes, both of which contain extremely varied subject matter. In every case Jacqueline’s flexibility, detailed knowledge of the language, and attention to detail have been outstanding. It is always reassuring to know that Jacqueline has cast her expert eye over a piece of work before it is published.

Paul Williamson, writer and general editor for Festival O/Modernt publishing

You made it so easy for me – your questions are so clear, and editing improves the text so much. I’m very grateful.

Yossef Rapaport, Islamic Maps (Bodleian Library Publishing, 2020)

Jacqueline Harvey was a godsend for this project. She was careful, diligent, and smart, making excellent corrections where obvious and gently guiding me to clarity in places where I might have been more resistant. Throughout all of it, she sustained my voice while also keeping me stylistically and academically honest. ​I recommend her most highly.

Christopher Meyers, The Professional Ethics Toolkit (Wiley Blackwell, 2018)

I was very impressed by your editing of our text. We had taken pains with it, yet every change you made was a clear improvement, and a kindness to the reader and our discipline. You made us look good. By taking the pain out of writing, you made me want to do more of it. Thank you for the skill and effort you invested! 

Siobhan Reilly, contributor to The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Family Studies (Wiley Blackwell, 2016)

I was so fortunate that Wiley Blackwell assigned Jacqueline Harvey to edit the manuscript for the second edition of my college textbook, The Ethical Journalist. Jacqueline excels in all the requisite skills of an excellent textbook editor: impeccable knowledge of the language, broad general knowledge, specialized knowledge of textbook style, meticulous attention to detail, and consummate practical judgment. In addition, she is a supportive colleague. Thanks to her editing, my manuscript is marvelously improved.

Gene Foreman, The Ethical Journalist: Making Responsible Decisions in the Digital Age (Wiley Blackwell, 2015)

My project was a collection of a canonical author’s letters, derived from a standard edition put together by a much-loved Byron scholar. In effect, it was a 500-page quotation, including many eccentricities of spelling and punctuation, literary and historical allusions without number, and matters of transcription right down to the length of a dash (to which Lord Byron was addicted). Jacqueline watched all this unfold like the proverbial hawk, and even corrected me on ‘who’/‘whom’ on a couple of occasions, thus saving my literary reputation. And she returned queries from marked-up sheets within twenty-four hours, every time. If my next book project with the same publisher prospers I shall request her services most emphatically.

Richard Lansdown (ed.), Byron’s Letters and Journals: A New Selection (Oxford University Press, 2015)

I had the pleasure of having Jacqueline Harvey as the copy-editor for my book. Because this was its fourth edition, and not a great deal of new text was included in it, I doubted whether she would be able to find much to correct or improve. I was wrong. She found numerous places where sentences could be simplified, shortened, and clarified. I was really quite amazed at the meticulousness of her work. Even though she worked quickly, she was careful to ask questions where she had doubts as to my exact meaning. I can recommend her highly for her speed, thoroughness, and overall professionalism.

Bruce F. Pauley, Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century (Wiley Blackwell, 2014)

Knowing that Jacqueline is working on a book for me gives me peace of mind. I have found her to be consistently reliable and meticulous, and the script and paperwork she returns are always immaculately presented. She works both efficiently and independently, while remembering to point out if anything she does will need to be followed up later in the production process. A book in Jacqueline’s hands is a book in safe hands.

Leah Morin, freelance project manager, Wiley Blackwell

As a freelance project manager for Wiley Blackwell, I have, over the past 10 years or so, often subcontracted copy-editing to Jacqueline Harvey. Jacqueline is a most reliable worker in all respects: fine attention to detail, excellent rapport with authors, always prompt and responsive to deadlines, and never backward in seeking advice if needed. I have no hesitation in trusting to Jacqueline’s judgement and would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a first-class copy-editor.

Sarah Dancy, freelance project manager, Wiley Blackwell