Harvard Health Publishing, the consumer health division of Harvard Medical School, is looking for an experienced copyeditor to add to our editorial team. You’ll be one of the first stops for consumer-facing articles produced by our seasoned journalists. The articles are published online and eventually land in one of HHP’s four monthly (subscription) publications. Articles also go to our many licensing clients and hundreds of outlets around the world.
Job basics:
Over the course of a month, you will copyedit about 30 to 40 articles on medical conditions and treatments, research findings, and good health practices. We have tight turnaround times and strict production schedules, and we must adhere to them.
What you bring to the table:
- A bachelor’s degree and 5 to 10 years of experience in consumer medical copyediting, substantive editing, or preferably both (before-and-after examples of your work will help demonstrate this).
- A solid understanding of health and medicine, enough to spot misconceptions and omissions before they get to our physician experts.
- Impeccable spelling, grammar, and punctuation skills.
- Commitment to applying and maintaining house style.
- The ability to make sure authors have accurately translated information from doctors, researchers, and other specialists into lay language, without misstating findings, overstating significance, or oversimplifying.
- The ability to recognize when substantive changes or reorganization are necessary, and to explain to an author what needs to be done and why.
- The ability to keep track of multiple interactions with multiple authors over repeated steps of revision.
- Familiarity with MS Word styling and formatting.
- Experience editing copy for SEO optimization; you understand its importance and can enhance the effort.
Copyediting will require that you:
- learn our editorial voice and our stylebook (based on NYT style but with many exceptions) and apply it consistently
- fix all styling, spelling, grammar, punctuation, and similar errors
- simplify medical jargon and convoluted sentences
- propose alternative wording or terminology when it would help readability
- fact-check basic information such as drug names and study dates
- flag anything that seems to be a factual or medical error or misrepresentation
- tidy up formatting within our very simple set of Word styles
- query authors for missing information, reorganization, or other substantive changes when necessary
- use our online editorial platform (Monday.com) to track the status of articles, download drafts ready for copyediting, and upload copyedited versions.
More details:
We’ll also expect you to
- communicate with collaborators throughout the editorial process
- respond quickly to occasional questions from collaborators
- respond to the occasional technical or styling query on a completed article at a later stage of layout and proofreading
- stay in contact with our managing director (as needed) throughout the monthly editorial process
The fine print:
We are a supportive, close-knit group and we’d like an enthusiastic team member for this contractor position. We need someone who shares our high standards, works as hard as we do, and adapts quickly to new ways of doing things from time to time. In return, we’ll provide a steady position at a top-notch organization, and we’ll value your expertise, talent, and commitment to our mission to serve a lay audience.
Contact us:
Please email your resume and links to your latest work to health_letter@hms.harvard.edu (subject line “copyeditor position”). If you’re a good fit, we’ll be happy to talk about compensation. Thanks for your consideration!