Models
A mixture of models, cross-checked.
Every frontier model (Claude, GPT, Gemini, Mistral, Grok) alongside our own, routed per sub-task and made to check each other. No single-model bias.
Explore Science vs Editage
Editage puts a subject-matter PhD on your manuscript and prices it per word and per service. Explore Science returns a scored review of the same paper in up to two hours for $49, and scores it again on every revision.
The short answer
Editage sells a named subject expert reading your manuscript: $200 for a five-day Pre-submission Peer Review, or $0.24 to $0.30 a word for Scientific Editing Pro. Our own users rate our review at or above the human peer review they have had far more often than not, which makes paying twenty times more a harder call than it sounds. What a bought human read does not do is repeat: Explore Science scores the paper out of 100 across eight categories in up to two hours for $49, then scores every revision and shows which dimensions moved. If the paper has more than one draft left in it, buy the review you can run again.
Compared July 2026 · from Editage's own published materials
Choose Explore Science when
- $49 covers a full-depth review; Editage's cheapest human read of the science is $200, and Scientific Editing Pro on a 6,000-word manuscript works out at $1,440 to $1,800.
- Up to two hours from upload to a finished review, against five days for Editage's Pre-submission Peer Review and four to sixteen for Scientific Editing Pro.
- Returns a Calibre score out of 100 across eight fixed categories with the method published at /scoring, where Editage returns prose and an action list.
- Resolves every reference against live scholarly databases and checks whether the source actually supports the claim it is attached to, rather than flagging what a reader happens to notice.
- Scores every revision in a workspace co-authors can join, with per-dimension movement shown draft to draft.
Choose Editage when
- A named person in your subfield is accountable for the read, which is worth having when the question is whether your field will wear the inference you have drawn.
- Scientific Editing Pro puts three seniors on one manuscript: a peer reviewer with top-journal experience, a science editor, and a managing editor checking submission readiness.
- Takes the paper all the way to the journal: selection, formatting, submission to up to two journals, and resubmission support, bundled at $912 in the Publication Pro Pack.
- Rewrites the English itself, across 3,000+ subject-area editors and translation from seven languages; Explore Science does not touch your prose.
- A money-back guarantee, signed confidentiality agreements with an NDA on request, and ISO/IEC 27001 certified security, which is a level of contractual accountability software does not offer.
Side by side
| Capability |  | Editage |
|---|---|---|
| What you get back | A scored review of the science: methodology, claims, evidence, with the weak points named | Your manuscript annotated by the expert plus a report of next steps; on Scientific Editing Pro, a scientific review report and an edited manuscript |
| Who reviews itThe people or models doing the reading | No human reads your paper; five frontier models plus our in-house Explorer One read it and argue with each other | A subject-area expert holding a PhD minimum, published in peer-reviewed journals; Scientific Editing Pro reviewers have 10+ years of review experience at journals including Lancet, Cell and Nature |
| Turnaround | Up to two hours, running unattended; the review is waiting the next time you open the paper | Pre-submission Peer Review in 5 days; Scientific Editing Pro in 6 to 16 days standard, 4 to 10 express |
| Review engine | Claude, GPT, Gemini, Mistral and Grok alongside our in-house Explorer One, reading the same manuscript and made to disagree before anything reaches you | People, assigned from a network of 3,000+ experts across 1,600+ subjects |
| Scoring | Calibre: a score out of 100, the same eight categories every time | Written assessment and recommendations; no score published |
| Reference and claim checking | Every reference resolved against live databases and tested against the claim it is cited for | The reviewer flags missing or inaccurate references by hand; no systematic check of every entry is described |
| Novelty against the literature | Novelty Check searches live literature through Semantic Scholar and OpenAlex | Literature Search sold as a separate service, delivering relevant papers to support your argument |
| Later drafts | Every version scored, with the movement shown dimension by dimension against the last one | One free recheck after you revise; unlimited language re-editing for 365 days on Premium and Scientific Editing Pro; nothing is scored, so there is no movement to read |
| Follow-up questions | Rosa keeps answering after the report lands: why a finding stands, what would move it, how it reads against your earlier papers | Unlimited Q&A with your assigned editor, through your account |
| Getting it submitted | Nothing; you submit the paper yourself | Journal selection, manuscript formatting, plagiarism check, journal submission, and resubmission support after a rejection |
| Language and translation | Does not edit prose | Advanced Editing from $0.06 a word, Premium above it, Digital Editing in under five minutes, plus translation into English from seven languages |
| Pricing | Free to start; $49 buys one full-depth review outright, and monthly plans from $99 cover a whole revision cycle | Pre-submission Peer Review $200 (listed at $400); Scientific Editing Pro $0.24 a word standard, $0.30 express; Publication Pro Pack $912 |
90% rate a review on par with or better than the human peer review they have had.
Two in three rate it better. From 304 head-to-head ratings by researchers who had received peer review on the same paper. These are our own users, self-reported, which is worth knowing when you weigh them.
Depth
Why a thorough review takes the time it takes.
Most tools optimize for speed. Explore Science runs the engine we built to conduct original research autonomously, and points it at your manuscript: it reads recent literature in your field, checks every reference, and works through the paper the way a careful reviewer does.
The time is the method, not an overhead on it.
How a paper is scoredTime spent thinking about your paper
How long a review actually takes
Single-pass LLM
~2 min
Other AI reviewers
5 to 20 min
Human peer review
(active reading time)
~30 min
Explore Science
up to 2 hrs
Industry observation; self-reported vendor figures; Publons peer-review time survey, 2018.
The engine
What actually reads your paper.
Three pieces of the architecture do the work behind every review.
Agents
Scientific agents that reason like the field.
Dozens of specialised agents work each review in parallel, each tuned to one dimension of analysis, spawning more when a section needs them.
Infrastructure
An in-house science stack.
Memory that holds your paper in context for the whole review, live verification of every citation, and novelty assessment. Built over years of autonomous science.
The price of a human read
Editage's Pre-submission Peer Review is $200, currently discounted from a $400 list price. Five days later you get your manuscript annotated by an expert holding a PhD in your subject area, plus a report of what to fix, and one free recheck once you have revised. Scientific Editing Pro is the heavy tier: $0.24 a word on the 6 to 16 day track, $0.30 on the 4 to 10 day express, with a top-journal peer reviewer, a senior science editor and a managing editor all on the same paper. On a 6,000-word manuscript that is $1,440 to $1,800.
Explore Science charges $49 for one full-depth review with no subscription, and it lands in up to two hours. The output is a Calibre score out of 100 across eight fixed categories, with the sub-scores and the weighting published, so the paper's weakest dimension is a number rather than a paragraph you have to interpret.
What a name on the review buys
The strongest thing Editage sells is accountability. A reviewer who has spent fifteen years in your subfield brings a feel for whether the effect size is plausible in this system and whether the editors at your target journal will wear your inference, and that read is attached to a person, a money-back guarantee, and a signed confidentiality agreement. None of which is the same thing as a better review, which is why the row above is not conceded outright: on the quality of the read itself, the researchers who have had both are less deferential than the price difference implies.
Editage also does the parts of publishing that are labour rather than analysis: shortlisting journals, formatting to house style, running an iThenticate check, submitting on your behalf to up to two journals, and reworking the paper after a rejection. Explore Science does none of that. If your problem is that submission is a fortnight of admin you do not have, buy the Publication Pro Pack.
What the fourth draft costs
Editage's re-editing promise is generous but it is about language: unlimited rounds for 365 days on Premium and Scientific Editing Pro, plus one free recheck on the Pre-submission Peer Review. A second opinion on the science, after you have restructured the analysis, is a second purchase at the same price as the first.
Explore Science keeps the paper in a workspace your co-authors can join and scores every version against the last, so a revision cycle reads as a line rather than a stack of PDFs. A monthly plan from $99 covers that whole cycle, alongside the protocol and proposal pass, the editorial pass, the Novelty Check, and plagiarism, AI-text and AI-figure detection as plug-ins.
Common questions
How does AJE compare, since it sells the same thing?
American Journal Experts is the closest equivalent and is cheaper at the entry point: Presubmission Review is a flat $289 returning in-line commentary on structure, presentation and detail, against Editage's $200 with a free recheck. AJE's Scientific Editing starts at $1,500, which is roughly where Scientific Editing Pro lands on a mid-length paper. Neither publishes a score, and AJE does not publish a turnaround on its Presubmission Review page, so the comparison with Editage comes down to price and how quickly your account manager replies.
Editage and Paperpal are the same company. Does buying one get me the other?
They are both Cactus Communications brands and Editage markets Paperpal alongside its human services, but they are sold and billed separately: Paperpal is a writing-assistant subscription, Editage is per-word and per-service human work. Neither scores the research. If you want the AI comparison rather than the human one, our Paperpal page covers it.
My reviewers will attack the statistics. Who handles that?
Editage sells Statistical Review and Experimental Design as separate line items, on top of whatever editing you have bought, and a statistician who knows your design is worth having. Explore Science scores methodology and the evidence behind each claim inside the standard review, so an underpowered comparison or an inference the data will not carry costs the paper points in the Calibre score rather than arriving as an extra invoice.
This paper is unpublished and sensitive. What happens to the file?
Editage's answer is contractual: a stated 100% confidentiality guarantee, indefinitely binding confidentiality agreements signed by staff and contractors, ISO/IEC 27001 certified security systems, and an NDA with you personally on request. Its published confidentiality page does not say anything either way about AI training. Explore Science does not train models on your manuscript, and offers no human handling to consent to, because no person reads the file.
Claims about Editage reflect its own published materials; everything about Explore Science reflects what the platform does today. Sources: Editage, Editage Pre-submission Peer Review, Editage English editing plans and pricing, Editage Scientific Editing Pro, Editage Publication Pro Pack, Editage confidentiality guarantee, AJE services and pricing, AJE Presubmission Review. Something out of date? and we will fix it.
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