Scientific Editor

Scientific editor is a specialist whose duties comprise editing materials dedicated to scientific and technological problems, and ensuring high quality of the published materials on the corresponding subjects. Unlike technical editor, who is mostly occupied with the technological aspects of preparing materials for print and rarely works with the text itself, a scientific editor does full-scale editing and proofreading of scientific texts.

Job Requirements

A scientific editor must:

  • be knowledgeable about the recent domestic and foreign scientific and technological advancements
  • know the methods of scientific editing of manuscripts
  • be perfectly fluent in his/her native language, know its grammar, punctuation, and stylistics; also, it is advisable that a scientific editor knows at least one foreign language
  • know the standards regarding scientific and technological terms, measurements, and time units; he/she must also know the standards for abbreviations and contractions
  • know the specifics of contracting reviewers and authors
  • have a higher journalism education (having a degree in one or several scientific disciplines is a valuable asset)

Professional Duties

A scientific editor performs the following duties:

  • edits the texts dedicated to scientific and technological problems, including proofreading, correcting mistakes, and verifying the credibility of the fats, data, and calculations presented in the text
  • checks whether the materials include recent scientific and technological advancements (in order to avoid publishing materials which are outdated, or possess no scientific significance, for example)
  • searches reviewers for scientific and technological materials being prepared for print, and contracts them
  • develops topical plans for a publishing house, regarding scientific and technological materials
  • decides on whether it is expedient to publish materials sent to a publishing house, and makes suggestions on their correction and improvement
  • takes part in the selection of illustrations for published materials, works on the manuscripts’ structure, inserts necessary changes into  the terminology used by the author, in order to make it correspond with the existing standards.
Scientific Editor