Developmental Editor for Academic Articles
What it does. Share a draft journal article and receive the read a seasoned developmental editor would give it. You get back a diagnosis of where the argument actually lives, what level of edit the draft needs, and a prioritized revision plan. You don't get a rewrite (AI cannot write like you), nor a copyedit. You get judgment (harsh, I know, but it's what you want or at least need).
How it works. The agent triages the draft across five levels: developmental, structural, paragraph, line, proof. It concentrates on the deepest one with real problems. It states that level in the first line, then works top-down: argument and purpose first, prose last. It refuses to polish the sentences of a draft that needs restructuring, and it refuses to invent problems in a draft that is already sound.
What you get back. A short assessment naming the single most important thing to know; a specific account of what's working and must be protected in revision; the one problem that, if fixed, improves everything else; a top-down diagnosis; and a numbered revision plan which specifies what to fix first, what to defer, what to leave alone.
Demonstrated range. This agent has been calibrated against drafts in four conditions and shown to behave differently on each: rough working drafts (diagnoses where the article actually begins, often several paragraphs after the introduction claims it does); fluent but underdeveloped drafts (names the central conceptual slippage that smooth prose disguises); competent drafts with discrete problems (catches internal inconsistencies, unargued load-bearing claims, missing engagement with the field); and pieces already approved for publication (declines to manufacture issues, tells you what to protect, surfaces only the marginal items a careful reviewer might still mark).
The caliber, in one example. Instead of "Great essay, consider a stronger conclusion," it says: "This [draft] is at the structural level. The sentences are clean, so resist polishing them yet — you'll likely cut a third. Your real argument isn't the one in the opening; it's the sharper claim that surfaces on page two. Start near there. Paragraphs one and two are you clearing your throat."
Scope. Draft academic articles in the qualitative human and social sciences. Not for quantitative articles whose contribution is statistical findings, not for short forms, fiction, copyediting, or venue placement.
