How to break into scientific/medical proofreading (and is it worth it)?

[cluttered]

Hi,
I am currently a bench scientist (SRS) in a biotech company; previously I had a similar role in academia but I would now like to move to a more flexible and remote working role.

One possibility might be retraining in med comms but it seems that although jobs are plentiful and eventually well paid they may not be very flexible in the entry-level positions?

Another option might be proofreading of medical/scientific journals etc. I’m in my 50’s wanting a better work-life balance rather than career progression so might this be a better fit? There are a lot of ads for proofreading courses but I don’t know how well-regarded they are or how many proofreading jobs there are out there. If anyone has any experience of breaking into this field (or of leaving bench science for something else that might fit my criteria) I’d be very grateful for any thoughts.

I’ve been a medical editor for over 20 years and happy to answer questions. I wouldn’t recommend the proofreading courses you used to see advertised in the backs of magazines! CIEP is very reputable though. Or you can apply for an entry-level training position at a medcomms agency - the bigger agencies will have good structures in place for proper training and development.

Agree that the CIEP will provide good training, since it's the main industry body for UK editors. However, their medical course requires some previous editorial training. If you're interested in proofreading rather than editing, it might not be quite right for you
https://www.ciep.uk/learn-and-develop/training-courses/medical-editing-e-learning.html
There's a lot more to proofreading than just spotting typos, so don't be taken in by outfits offering short, easy courses.

I’m not sure what you’re referring to when you say ‘not very flexible’ with respect to med comms? What I can tell you is that med comms is going through quite a bad patch at the moment, so jobs may not be as plentiful as you think!

Thanks all. What I mean by flexibility is that I'd like something that didn't require fixed hours/location at the start. Something that I could use my scientific background in, that didn't require a long period of training.

The level of remuneration isn't so important because I have the possibility of taking my final salary pension early and my children are adults so largely financially independent but I want something to keep my brain active. Does it sound as if medical/scientific editing or proofreading could fit the bill?

It's not my field, so I couldn't say for sure .... but bear in mind, you'd probably be working freelance, and as such you'd have to work to the deadlines you're given. So you could probably set your own hours, but you'd have to work X hours a day to make the deadline. Proofreading demands a lot of concentration – frankly I've never understood how the pros can keep their focus for such long periods.

Maybe consider taking an introductory general editing or proofreading course in your spare time, to see if you like the work?

I'm a non-science academic and most of our journals are doing AI proof reading now.

Thanks all, this is very helpful. No point in retraining in a skill that will soon be made redundant by advances in AI!

Any suggestions for jobs that are more AI-proof where a scientific background would be helpful? It seems that bench scientists will be required for a while longer; even if drug development is moving in silico, in vitro screening will be required for a while longer for confirmation. However I'm hoping to move away from bench science. Unfortunately bioinformatics isn't something I have an interest in because that might fit the bill otherwise.

ohhh that's depressing

Can I interest you in science communication, for a public audience (as opposed to scientific publishing-related stuff)? I probably need to update this 2019 blog post which listed example of types of jobs and sectors but I think it's a good place to start https://scicommjobs.wordpress.com/2019/01/06/types-of-science-communication-jobs-a-list/

This is how I organised it when I wrote it.

1. Museums, science centres
2. Science or medical journalism
3. TV or radio presenting, or contributor, editor, producer, researcher
4. Medical research charities / patient groups (also science research-funding Research Councils)
5. Government / Policy
6. Learned societies / professional bodies
7. Universities
8. Pharmaceutical companies (e.g. patient information leafets). See also PIF, the Patient Information Forum which covers this and health charity stuff too.

I run 'psci-com' a fairly big mailing list for science communicators and 'public engagement with science' specialists and people regularly post jobs (other stuff too) there - have a bit of a rummage in the October and September posts to see what's been posted there recently. It tends to be mid-level jobs, entry-level and very senior are a bit rarer on the list (senior ones are possibly more networking, LinkedIn and head-hunting) but you can see what's out there. The words 'hybrid' and 'remote' are definitely cropping up more, though most organisations want you to pop into the office every so often. Universities are often very flexible.

Some other organisations / sectors also have their own mailing lists for networking and jobs etc, have a look at https://scicommjobs.wordpress.com/2021/01/30/scicomm-communities-of-practice/

This is an ancient blog post of mine and I'm sure all the links will have broken by now. It basically listed hundreds of vacancies pages within various categories. Really only worth scanning at speed to get a sense of the huge variety of places that are likely to employ science communicators in one form or another.

Depending on how closely allied your biotech stuff is to health there's also the whole genre of Patient & Public Involvement (it goes under various names) - getting people involved in clinical research etc.

Also I've not looked much into Engineering Biology yet but as it's a priority for the UK Gov't you might be quite well placed to seek out opportunities to write or otherwise create content about it.

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Pretty much every time I include links to my blog posts it seems to trigger a suspension (evidently not permanent!) so in case that happens and someone has to look into it here are all my previous posts and threads :-)
_https://www.mumsnet.com/search/advanced#/?username=jobrodie&type=all&topics=&page=1&sort=search

Jo

Thanks @JoBrodie, great suggestion about science communication. My work experience is all in translational medical research and the biotech company I’m at currently is basically a CRO for big pharma (as well as having our own internal IP) so very connected to health. I will investigate opportunities in the field of patient and public involvement.

Bit of a wild card here but have you thought of working for a venture capital firm as an evaluator of science investments or CSO of a start up? All much more varied than bench science and can be done remotely

Thanks @Fraudornot all suggestions considered. @JoBrodie how does one get into science communication, are there any well-respected short training courses (not wanting to do another post-grad qualification at this point in my life)? Is it possible to get an entry level job without this? Would it be possible to get some experience in this field by volunteering in this field, for a small medical research charity for example?

Courses
There's a four day science communication course coming up in Bristol. Registrations have closed but contact them and see if there's a waiting list. It's by the same team who run a longer MSc in Science Communication. This one runs 11-14 November 2024, £800 (some concessions available) https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?A2=PSCI-COM;afee3c77.2409 or direct link https://courses.uwe.ac.uk/Z51000095/science-communication-masterclass#entry

They also run an online course in Creative Science Communication and Public Engagement CPD Course https://courses.uwe.ac.uk/USSKNS15M/creative-science-communication-and-public-engagement, coming up in January.

The ABSW (Association of British Science Writers) has a list of some courses and modules here https://www.absw.org.uk/pages/courses-in-science-communications and yes I did just google 'science communication short courses' and lots of stuff popped up. I've not taken any of the courses myself so can't advise on them but I'd think any of them would be good https://www.google.com/search?q=science+communication+short+courses&udm=14

Public Engagement and Evaluation
Science Communication and Public Engagement are kind of two sides of the same coin - scicomm more about telling people about stuff, public engagement more about involving people in [subject / research / whatever]. Often the terms are used interchangeably but there is a difference.

This page from BIG the stem communicators network also has some other suggestions including the Methods for Change evaluation courses (I did one a few years ago, very good) https://www.big.uk.com/training - you can also find out about evaluating public engagement events from this document from QMUL colleagues https://www.qmul.ac.uk/publicengagement/support/evaluation-toolkit/

This is a free guidebook on Public Engagement - it is the result of a course run by the Alan Turing Institute on 'Public Engagement with Data Science and AI' but, apart from the specificity of the examples, the rest applies to any kind of public engagement https://alan-turing-institute.github.io/turing-commons/skills-tracks/ped/

Jobs
There are certainly a lot more people looking for science communication jobs so there's certainly a risk that you'll be up against people with specific qualifications (when I started back in 2003 it was a lot easier). However an awful lot of 'evidently science communication' jobs still aren't badged as such so I am always recommending that people browse through organisations' vacancies pages, hence my large list. My first charity scicomm job in 2003 was actually posted as a librarian / information specialist post.

All universities have comms and press teams to woohoo their own research for example, some are advertised through scicomm channels but plenty are categorised as comms or marketing.

Alzheimer's UK wants a £23k Communications Executive in their Science Communications team, based near Cambridge, closes in 5 days https://alzheimersresearchuk.current-vacancies.com/Jobs/Advert/3653948

Volunteering
I'd say pick a charity etc that you like and ask them. They may have a volunteering program in place and it might not include scicomm (...yet).

Very quick guide to scicomm ;)
I'd probably distill my 'how to scicomm' a bit like this, and I think it's probably fairly obvious but can be helpful to put it explicitly: it's not just about translating complex scientific information into plain English but also adding back context and knowledge ('background') that wouldn't need to be included for scientists.

People often say 'don't use jargon' and where you end up working may have a policy or house style on that, but I'd say 'use jargon but explain it', particularly in the health arena where people with a condition are going to be searching for info and will likely come across technical terms. One 'advantage' of jargon is that it flags itself up as a word someone doesn't know. Language to be particularly careful of includes the everyday words that scientists and doctors use to mean one thing and everyone else reads them differently. Classic example is of the patient greatly cheered by learning that their medical test has come back 'positive' which to them means 'good' but to their doctor means 'has a disease'.

Similarly protein (peptides vs eggs or chicken) or cell (thing with a nucleus, mobile phone, prison), or theory (hunch vs reasonably well-evidenced ideas) and so on.

Anyway, gosh I really need an editor don't I ;-)
Jo