Like medical writers, medical editors (or scientific editors) do play a crucial role in the field of scientific writing and medical communication. They are the proactive members of the team, who provide appropriate suggestions for adopting the reader’s point of view and help improve the overall quality of the write-up. The suggestions might be about the scientific language, flow, and clarity of the write-up.

What are the responsibilities of a medical editor?
An ideal medical editor deals with various editorial services, including medical editing, copy editing and fact-checking. They need to understand the complete lifecycle of the project and submission tasks for various clients. They are responsible for:

• Editing the language clarity and consistency of the write-up.
• Ensuring scientific accuracy, correct balance, tone, flow, and overall cohesiveness of the document.
• Checking grammar, spelling, and typographical errors.
• Formatting and accurate referencing.
• Formatting the text in accordance with the medical journal guidelines.
• Managing priorities and deadlines of the project.
• Querying the writer about the logical flow, organization, and missing information in the content.
• Maintaining agency style guides to keep current client requirement.
• Coordinating the work of other team members to complete the project delivery on time.

Where do they work?
The best workplace for a medical editor is at a large scientific publishing house or a pharmaceutical or healthcare organization. However, they may also find great opportunities in the academic publishing house, online publications, and medical communication companies. Also, a medical editor can begin their own medical editing business to gain identity and success. But, a lot of efforts are needed to start, operate, and grow the business.

What are the qualities required to be a medical editor?
In addition to the educational qualification in the field of medicine or science, medical editors require certain qualities that enable them to work with writers, manage day-to-day tasks, and maintain good coordination and workflow from the whole team. A medical editor must have an eye for detail to ensure that the content is error-free. They must have good written and spoken language skills to communicate effectively. Additionally, they must have excellent writing skill, which helps them to reorganize the content to attain clarity and flow. They should also have adequate knowledge for reference sourcing to check the content accuracy.

Acquiring the qualities of a medical editor might not be a huge task, but maintaining it throughout your career path could be challenging. Try out these tips, they could be of great help:

• Learn about the list of medical style-guides used in your country.
• Keep your medical knowledge up to date by reading the latest medical journals.
• Get well-versed with all the medical terminologies.
• Attend annual medical editing meetings or conferences to refine your skills.

If you have a creative spark with great language skills and wish to make a future in the field of medicine or science, then a medical editor job is worth trying.