I wanted to share my experiences working as a contract
editor for American Journal Experts (AJE) and let other postdocs (and grad
students) know about this opportunity. AJE recruits PhD-level scientists to edit papers that
were written by international authors for submission to English-language
journals. The editors try to make
the grammar and style of the text sound like a native-English speaker wrote it;
they don’t try to edit or even comment on the scientific content. I joined last fall after they held a recruitment session on
campus. So far, I have edited
about 9 papers (I took a big break to write a review for lab), and I think it
has been a good experience. I like
knowing that I am helping the authors have a better chance of getting their
work published. Senior-level
editors at AJE check each assignment and give you feedback, so you know how you
are doing and can be sure that the author receives a high-quality edit on the
paper. As a result, my writing
skills have definitely been fine-tuned, which has helped me write my own papers
more clearly.
What I like about this job is that it is under my
control. When you sign up, you
tell AJE what fields you feel comfortable with, and they only assign you papers
in those categories. For
example, I edit papers in Biotechnology, Analytical Chemistry, and Biomedical
Engineering. Furthermore, you
decide how many papers you want to edit each week, if any. When I am working late in lab, or
working on my own paper or a grant, I set myself to “unavailable” so that I am
not distracted by editing assignments.
When I am available, I limit it to 1 paper per week (though more are
allowed), so that I can do the editing in my spare time and not detract from my
lab work. The papers vary from
interesting to rather routine. It
usually takes me a few hours to complete an edit, though I know that in general
I am a slow editor. The most
poorly written paper I received took me about 6 hours to edit, which I was
discouraged by, but the very next paper I got only took 2 hours. It averages out. You do get paid for each paper you
edit, and while the compensation isn’t going to make you rich, it’s nice to
have a little extra spending money each month.
I am happy to talk to you about my experiences if you are curious. Anyone who is interested can apply for the editor position under Contractor Opportunities on their “careers” page: http://goo.gl/jFYUy.
Rebecca Pompano
rpompano@uchicago.edu
