How do we check the quality of your documents?

The Publications Office provides a proofreading service to ensure the linguistic quality of your documents. This service covers certain range of documents published in the L series in all official languages of the EU and consists of the following elements.

How do we check the linguistic quality of your text?

We check the legal compliance of your documents. This involves applying the rules and agreements specified in the Official Journal section of the Interinstitutional style guide (verification of references to legislative acts, etc.).

At the proofreading stage, the proofreaders ensure that the text precisely matches the supplied manuscript, that the layout is correct, and that the typographical rules specific to each language have been adhered to.

How do we harmonise the various linguistic versions of your documents?

To harmonise the content and layout of the various linguistic versions of the OJ (rule of synoptism, i.e. the same parts of the text must appear on the same page in all language versions) we make the following checks:

• verification of numbers, paragraphs and structure in all linguistic versions, and alignment if necessary;
• at the proofreading stage, the Publications Office checks visual consistency and ensures that all the content and the corrections made are indeed incorporated.

How can you approve corrections to your texts prior to final publication?

The Publications Office allows you to approve corrections to your texts before final publication, a process known as early reading.

Your documents are revised and sent back to you before their formal adoption, via a specific procedure which has two advantages:

• the corrections, highlighted, are sent to the author for his/her approval;
• the author also receives a report containing comments or questions aiming to optimise the quality of the original document and its various linguistic versions.
• If you wish to approve corrections prior to final publication, you should send a request to the early reading functional mailbox. The mentioned timeframe for publication does not include early reading.

What happens after your documents have been published?

After publishing, the Publications Office carries out a quality check by checking extracts:

• from the published Official Journal;
• from the published contract notices (see section How to publish a contract notice);
• and from the consolidated legislative texts.