Hello and greetings,

I had by accident met someone recently who had interviewed for a number of editorial positions at Nature Publishing Group and failed. By editorial position I mean a manuscript editor like myself. As I was listening to their account of how the interview process went, it occurred to me to post this message.

It is not the intention of this post to unfold all the failures of that interview but to share with you the types of things one would learn on an editorial job and for those interested in editorial jobs to reflect if these are the things that really interest you and are the set of skills you really want to build…

A job description tells you what the job is about and the basic/fundamental skills or technical degrees needed to accomplish the tasks effectively. Once you get the job, the training and learning begins…

It is not so easy to forget my very first research highlight article; it was humiliating and a humbling experience! We all think we write well (“NPG hired me, so I must be good”, you think to yourself) and with all good intentions submit what we think is our best. At NPG, every single article is edited a number of times – for content, language and format. Everything has to be perfect, down to the last punctuation! Just so much goes into it…

An editor first learns how to humble him/herself and gets comfortable with someone else correcting their writing. Then, you learn to write your own articles more effectively over time. By effectively I mean reading and capturing the essence of the paper in a 250-word highlight all within a few short hours. You learn to deliver accurate content in an accessible format rapidly.

By accessible I mean explaining the science in layman’s terms. This becomes tricky when working with people from diverse backgrounds, especially on a journal like Nature Nano. Do you define ‘photobleaching’ for the physicists and leave the biologists to guess what a ‘band gap’ is? You learn to defend the area you handle – which technical terms can be left alone and which can/should be simplified?

Writing is a small part of the job. Editing and reading manuscripts make up the larger chunk. In both instances, an editor becomes an ‘expert’ in the paper for a short while. Researching the literature, reading related literature and finding ways to express difficult concepts and making sure the text flows logically and coherently. Attention to detail is a skill you develop over time with these tasks. You develop an overview of various subjects but to a lesser extent any in-depth details of the fields. The review process, self-improvement initiatives and communications with Authors help build the details. One learns to shamelessly ask many questions and offer suggestions!

Editors read plenty of things and do so at a very rapid pace. They read anything and everything and find joy in this. Being able to quickly capture the main essence of papers comes with time. Someone once told me editors learn to ‘sniff’ the good stuff out…

Traveling and public speaking are other essential skills you learn on the job. We plan conferences to attend and lab visits within the vicinity. You learn to work long hours and keep up with manuscripts while on the road. For many, public speaking is scary. Shy editors, like myself, learn to speak up confidently and answer editorial questions in public seminars. What happens when someone says ‘Why did you reject my paper?’ or ‘You are too young to be an editor’. You learn to deal with people and their personalities…

As an editor based in Tokyo, one last skill that I have really struggled to learn is the Japanese language and still learning are the Japanese lifestyle, culture and habits…

So, do you really like/want a job in publishing?