Language checking for scientific papers

This program attempts to assist you in improving your paper before submission.

Features

• find common grammar mistakes (e.g. prepositions)
• find wordy phrases and suggest replacements
• find long, wordy sentences
• find tense inconsistencies
• check visual impression of paper
• check topic sentences

Requirements

• python
• convert command (ImageMagick): Install with your distribution
• nltk: Install with pip
• nltk data: Install with python -m nltk.downloader all
• detex command (usually comes with LaTeX)

How to use

• create PDF from your latex file -> mypaper.pdf
• use detex to create pure text file -> mypaper.txt
• run $ python languagecheck.py mydir/mypaper.txt mydir/mypaper.pdf
• open with a web browser mypaper_index.html to see all reports

Demo output

Under the following link is an analysis using an early draft of this paper: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017MNRAS.465.4348B Program output: https://johannesbuchner.github.io/languagecheck/demo/agnpaper.txt_index.html

See also - Statistics checklist

Check for common statistics mistakes with this checklist http://astrost.at/istics/minimal-statistics-checklist.html