过而不改，是谓过矣 [A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it, is committing another mistake.] (孔夫子 [Confucius], “論語 [Analects]“)
Nobody, least of all referees, enjoys a paper which is badly written and full of errors.
Even if the result itself is first-class, a cavalier attitude to expository or accuracy issues (or the presumption that it is solely up to the editor and referee, rather than the author, to address these issues) will negatively impact both the referee reports on the paper, and the editor’s final decision on the paper. (Even if the paper does eventually appear, these issues may also discourage potential readers from working their way through the paper.)
In particular, having an error discovered after the submission process, which then necessitates sending a revised version onward to the referee, tends to tie up a lot of time and thus slow down an already sluggish process.
Even “trivial” issues, such as spelling errors, can unintentionally and needlessly convey a negative and unprofessional first impression of sloppiness and/or laziness, and can prejudice readers, referees, and editors against a manuscript.
One’ s use of citations should receive particular scrutiny; if an important and relevant reference in the subject is mentioned only tangentially, cited inaccurately, or omitted altogether, then this can cause all sorts of misunderstandings and unfavorable impressions which could have been avoided with a little bit more care. When in doubt, don’t hesitate to look up primary sources to double check that the citations are being handled properly.
Investing some time before submission to try to eradicate these sorts of problems (and to give the paper one last polish, in the meantime) is usually well worth it; it earns the goodwill of the editor and referee, thus speeding up the publishing process, and also improves the final product.
See also “Submit a final draft, not a first draft” and “Write professionally“.
What's new 
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
22 November, 2009 at 6:23 am
Advice on writing paper « Computer Vision
[…] Proofread and double-check your article before submission; you should be submitting a final draft, not a first draft. […]
5 November, 2011 at 9:49 pm
Anonymous
small typo in last line: should be “publishing process”.
Thanks for all the great advice!
[Corrected, thanks – T.]
12 January, 2016 at 2:22 pm
gninrepoli
It is true, but not always, sometimes you can do worse than it was and this can be critical in some situations.At first glance, reading Confucius quotations I was confident in their entirety. But as it turned out it was not. Another example of a quotation: “Anyone, the most difficult question, if it is set, then there is a response. But the correct answer can be given only when questioning the wisdom of the complexity of the response is adequate.” Consider this sentence: “Anyone, the most difficult question, if it is set, then there is a response.” Here is a controversial question: “Is there an answer to the most difficult question?” Then: “But the correct answer can be given only when questioning the wisdom of the complexity of the response is adequate.” “Nobody will praise you in case you don’t do it yourself.” Good Confucius!Philosophy – a Breaking the brain, and can be up to a mental hospital or not.I wanted to ask more about the “unwritten” rules of the mathematical proof.Reading articles in various fields of mathematics, I came to the conclusion (and this can be seen in the articles), to prove the hypothesis that it is necessary to summarize and then broken down into smaller parts. Here the word “summarize” very vague in definition. Still, is there any literature on these rules (in the mathematical mainstream of course)?
P.S. Sorry for the Google translator.