Working with medical editors

Medical writers and editors collaborate on accurate, understandable documents, with agreed responsibilities and clear communication throughout the work.

Editorial contribution

Editors in medical communications provide quality control, edit, proofread and review materials, mark up figures and tables for layout, format documents and slides, assist writers and collate feedback. ^{1, 2} An agency editor described contributing to data checking without checking the underlying data’s integrity, and training others in medical writing, editing, copyright and predatory publishing. ^{1, 3} Editors should challenge unclear language and intended meaning, keeping wording ethical, logical, accurate, understandable and appropriate to the audience. ⁴

Editing Good Publication Practice 2022 required consistency across many authors’ and reviewers’ preferences, sometimes finding common wording for what appeared to be different requests. ² The editor negotiated between the authoring team and review panel, collated comments, checked references in a large document and supplement, adapted to changed journal styling and planned the supplement’s layout for practical use. ^{4, 5}

Early involvement and shared expectations

Editors should be involved from the beginning, with an explanation of the publication’s purpose and audience and a role in target-journal selection. ^{5, 6} They can research journals, apply journal styling, answer questions and prepare a dummy submission to identify what the journal requires. ⁶ They can also advise on copyright permission, help avoid predatory publishers and check that wording suits the audience. ^{7, 8} Editors should read Good Publication Practice so they can advise on its recommendations. ^{7, 8}

Editors can share checklists, and teams can build one from Good Publication Practice to check whether its recommendations have been met. ⁶ Writers should ask why an edit was made rather than assume the editor knows or does not know a rule, because an unfamiliar guideline may explain it. ⁶ Comments should be collated before being passed to the editor for incorporation, which is harder when feedback arrives piecemeal. ⁷

Editing level, method and communication

Poor communication can make a potentially rewarding writer–editor relationship stressful. ⁹ In a teaching scenario, a writer requested copyediting and journal styling but received extensive tracked changes that altered meaning and ignored the client’s lexicon, damaging confidence in the editorial team. ⁹ The writer had not explained the required editing level and the editor had not clarified it before starting; the writer probably wanted proofreading rather than copyediting. ⁹

Editors must explain the level of editing and its tasks, and both parties need to agree the method, such as tracked changes in Word or text edits in Acrobat, and continue communicating. ⁹ Writers should give constructive feedback before excluding an editor from future work. ⁹

The writer’s responsibilities are as follows. ⁹

• Explain the required editing level.
• Provide necessary supporting documentation and ideally a kickoff call before a large project.
• Supply a style guide and lexicon where applicable.
• Establish the absolute deadline.
• Ask questions as they arise.
• Give constructive feedback after the job.

⁹

The editor’s responsibilities are as follows. ^{9, 10}

• Ensure the writer understands the editing level and method.
• Highlight every editorial change.
• Keep edits within the agreed level.
• Send major queries immediately and minor queries in batches or with the returned document to avoid excessive email.
• Warn of anticipated changes in turnaround time.

^{9, 10}

Communication and mutual respect support an effective relationship. ¹⁰

Shared editorial records

A life-sciences training company sought factual accuracy and grammatical consistency across print, e-learning and mobile materials produced by teams. ¹¹ Its editorial department’s proposed workflows shared an emphasis on collaborative editing wherever possible. ¹² A project-specific Editorial Notes document recorded editorial decisions, client style and preferences, and design decisions; document sharing and defined editorial terminology also supported the work. ¹³ The department reported better organisation and efficiency and considered the tools useful for agency and freelance editors too. ¹⁴

Continuing partnerships

Writers and editors bring different skills to publication development. ^{15, 16} One practitioner contrasted writers’ creativity, research and subject knowledge with editors’ analysis and improvement of text, which might require less subject expertise. ¹⁶ She considered most medical communicators stronger in one role, even when they perform both, and favoured specialisation with a partner whose strengths complement their weaker areas. ^{16, 17}

A partner can detect information omitted through the curse of knowledge, where writers assume readers share what they know, and catch mistakes, strengthen writing and provide mentoring and objective feedback. ¹⁸ A partner can also reduce emotional attachment to text, save refinement time and support career goals and advancement. ^{18, 19}

The practitioner identified four features of an ideal partnership. ²⁰

• Complementary skills forming a larger set than either person has alone.
• Confidence that each can trust and rely on the other.
• Chemistry based on respect, valuing each other, and constructive decisions, disagreement and conflict resolution.
• Similar values established before problems arise, including deadline-driven or value-driven work ethic, early or later working hours, communication, risk-taking, goals, vision and equal commitment or an explicit division of effort.

²⁰

Potential partners include familiar colleagues, contacts made at conferences or on professional platforms, people responding through professional organisations, and chance acquaintances. ^{21, 22} A company can seek an internal partner or trial a consultant before hiring, while self-employed writers and editors can establish a formal contractual partnership. ²² Four questions can help assess its value. ²²

1. What is the person’s vision?
2. What are their strengths and weaknesses?
3. What are their interests and professional goals?
4. What are their company’s goals?

²²