This article pertains to the medical or scientific editing of pharmaceutical marketing materials and medical and scientific papers. It is intended to provide background information on the role of a medical editor in a medical communications agency or scientific publishing environment, for those candidates considering choosing medical editing as a career path.
Medical Communication Agencies or Medical Education Agencies provide bespoke marketing, promotional and educational services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. The role of the medical editor is to provide a quality check on all the materials / copy produced by the editorial department to ensure it satisfies standards of grammar, spelling, accuracy flow and consistency. The editor will also ensure the work is in accordance with the client’s preferred style. In some agencies medical writers will be encouraged to take on the mantle of editor as well but there will always be companies that recruit candidates with purely editing skills.
The medical or scientific editor will work in the editorial department alongside medical writers and generally under the supervision of the Editorial Director. You will also have a close working relationship with production staff as you will have an input into design and lay-out and will be responsible for signing off proofs.
Just a few examples of the types of materials that you will be asked to proof and review might include, manuscripts for journal publication, feature articles for magazines, conference reports, posters and abstracts; training aids, including slide-kits and lecture notes and educational materials such as patient leaflets or web copy. There is much more besides, but this provides an idea of the variety and diversity of the work undertaken.
This quality control is applied to all the different types of communications materials over a variety of media and therapy areas. This is why it is important for editors to have good general science knowledge.
There is career progression from a medical editor into more senior editorial positions with a medical communications agency or scientific publishing house where you might expect to take more managerial responsibilities and some editors also find themselves being drawn towards the medical writing career path.
There are no specific requirements or qualifications needed to become a medical editor, although companies generally look for candidates with a Life Sciences degree or English degree who have a good understanding of biological processes and physical anatomy; many editors have a personal interest in English language and usually have creative flair. Companies will be looking for candidates with good proof reading and copy editing skills and it is standard for a company to request that candidates complete an editing test during the interview process to assess the candidate’s skills; these tests take many forms and are designed to assess a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. Other useful skills to have are good organisation and financial awareness, as the medical editor often acts as the lynch-pin of the project, co-ordinating all the stakeholders to choreograph the smooth running of an account. You will also need good inter-personal communications skills as you will be reviewing other people’s work and providing constructive feedback.
At ID Search & Selection we specialise in placing medical communications professionals into medical communication agencies and pharmaceutical companies. If you are interested in finding out more about medical editor jobs or you would like to discuss your next move in more detail with an experienced recruitment consultant, please contact us.
