Grammarly vs. Rubriq: Which AI-based Editing Tool is Most Effective for Research Institutions?

At literally all research institutions throughout the world, native and non-native English speaking researchers are challenged when editing grant proposals, academic articles, and other scholarly works. Editing is especially time consuming, collectively taking millions of hours away from research and teaching efforts each year. 

Both Grammarly and Rubriq offer AI-based digital editing solutions for institutional researchers, but which service is better for academic disciplines? 

We uploaded identical academic papers from across science and engineering into Rubriq and Grammarly and recorded the results. We found the Rubriq bested Grammarly in all three categories studied: actionable edits, thoroughness, and phrasal improvement.

Our superior Rubriq writing assistant tool offers institutional licensing to:

1. Save your researchers thousands of hours, giving them more time to conduct research.
2. Improve the quality of your researchers’ manuscripts before they are submitted to international SCIlisted journals, increasing chances of publication and citations.
3. Ensure that your research proposals are set up for funding success when reviewed by potential sponsoring organizations.
4. Drive up the international ranking of your institution. 

Comparison Area 1: Actionable Edits

Actionable edits defined: Will the writer, after reviewing edits and markups, understand what actionable changes should be made to improve their paper? This is especially crucial for nonnative English-language speakers.

Grammarly marked sentences as unclear, denoted by the blue underlined words in the excerpt below. Vague suggestions such as this provide authors no actionable help for improvement. This can be especially frustrating for researchers who speak English as a foreign language.

Rubriq, however, made specific edits to improve phrasing and word usage, making it more helpful and inclusive to the broader research community. This excerpt from a civil engineering paper illustrates.

Comparison Area 2: Thoroughness

Thoroughness defined: Did either of the tools thoroughly identify unclear or erroneous sentences within technical, field-specific writing? One of the main criticisms often leveled at general AI editing tools like Grammarly is that they are unable to adjust field-specific language nuances.

Among all the scientific papers tested, there were instances where Grammarly missed opportunities to flag unclear sentences or field-specific errors.

Rubriq, however, flagged those field-specific errors. This highlighted excerpt illustrates.

Comparison Area 3: Phrasal Improvement

Phrasal Improvement defined: How thorough were each of the editing tools’ suggestions? Did they make phrasal improvements across individual phrases or across entire sentences?

Grammarly focused on changing words and phrases in isolated sections of the sentence.

Rubriq made more holistic changes to sentences, providing overall phrasal improvement, as shown below in this pediatrics paper.

The Bottom Line

Rubriq, AJE's digital editing and writing assistant tool, is superior to Grammarly in academic and research settings, particularly in the sciences and engineering. 

Hundreds of editors with advanced degrees across hundreds of disciplines helped train this powerful Rubriq tool. Using proprietary AI-based technology trained by millions of human edits to academic papers covering nearly 450 areas of study, we’ve developed a product that provides:

• Comprehensive editing capability, with the ability to reorganize entire sentences while also editing for grammar, diction, clarity, word choice, and more. 
• A tool that will enhance an academic paper, not change its meaning. 
• More control, along with the ability to display all markups in a finished document. 
• A superior ability to find errors and make actionable suggestions among technical language. 
• The ability to save thousands of work hours for researchers across the institution, freeing up time for them to focus on research and education. 
• The huge added benefit of time and cost savings for institutions.

Discover how our AI-based tools can positively impact research productivity at your institution.

Contact businessdevelopment@researchsquare.com to learn more and set up a free digital editing trial for your entire research group or institution.

• Save your researchers thousands of hours, giving them back more time to conduct research.
• Improve the quality of your researchers’ manuscripts before they are submitted to international SCI-listed journals, increasing their chances of publication and increasing citations.
• Ensure that your research proposals are free from errors and can therefore be judged simply on merit. Set-up your institution for funding success when facing review by potential sponsoring organizations.