editing, academic, proofreading, ISO, medical

I attended the University of Aberdeen, where I studied chemistry, with physics, mathematics, and zoology as subsidiary subjects. I graduated with a BSc Honours degree in chemistry. I remained at the University of Aberdeen to do postgraduate work on organometallic chemistry, and was awarded a PhD.

I have almost 30 years’ experience in STM publishing, including 10 years editing, commissioning, and project managing at Pergamon Press/Elsevier, four years as Senior Publishing Editor for chemistry and chemical engineering at Elsevier, and five years as Publisher for chemistry and materials science at John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

I have been freelance since 2002 and I offer a range of publishing and editorial services, including project management, editing, re-writing, copy-editing, and proofreading. I work mainly in the physical sciences, engineering, and mathematics, but I am happy to undertake work in any area of STM publishing. Much of the work I undertake involves editing a variety of materials – journal papers, books, book chapters, dissertations, theses, etc. – produced by authors who are not native English speakers to ensure that the language is of an acceptably high standard.

Cactus Communications is one of my regular clients and I have developed an excellent working relationship with my contacts there. I receive a regular flow of work, and the co-ordinators who assign the work are very helpful in responding to my needs for flexibility in the amount of work I can handle. Any feedback provided on my work has always been useful and constructive.

Cactus has a number of procedures in place which facilitate the editorial process. An interface on the Cactus website is used for downloading assignments, backing up files at intermediate stages, and uploading the final edited versions on completion; this provides a very efficient means of handling file transfers. On the few occasions when I have experienced problems with the editorial interface, my e-mail queries have been responded to, and the problem resolved, swiftly. The freelancer extranet contains a wealth of editorial resources, tools, and other information pertinent to carrying out freelance work for Cactus. The invoicing process and the payment schedule are clearly set out, and an invoice template is provided for those who wish to use it. In my experience, payment has always been made within the specified timescale.

Overall, I find Cactus to be a very professional organization. The staff are efficient, friendly, and helpful, and I enjoy working with them.

What compels a respectable, reserved, ostensibly rational country boy to ditch the cosy security of English provincial life, dispose of all his worldly possessions, and start from scratch in Mumbai, India’s heaving financial capital? Call it midlife angst, call it frustration at the paucity of career opportunities, call it disillusionment with contemporary British society, something was urging a radical change of direction. I needed new trails to blaze, new mountains to conquer, new horizons to explore; somewhere far away.

India was far away, and India was where my sights were set. My first visit to the Great Subcontinent had been in 1999 and had I instantly fallen in love with the country and the wonderful Indian people. Each year thereafter I returned. Each time the stay became a little longer. And each time the bonds of friendship grew a little stronger. And I dreamt. I dreamt of one day living and working in this intoxicating country. Cactus Communications enabled me to realize that dream. They, of all the Indian companies, universities, and NGO’s I had approached, were the only ones to show an interest.

To describe India as a land of contrasts is no doubt a relentlessly flogged cliché; however, it remains no less true. It was the stark contrasts on the day of that first interview at Cactus I still vividly recall. A two-hour taxi crawl across the heart of Mumbai: the heat, the noise, the stench, the chaos. Then, as if stepping through a door into another world, the cool, hushed, aseptically clean Cactus office; stuffed to the gills with shiny new computer hardware. I was impressed, hugely impressed. The people impressed too: very enthusiastic, very positive, very forward thinking. There and then I decided I would take a chance on Cactus. For their part, the Cactus people were, I sensed, more than a smidgeon bemused as to why this respectable, reserved, ostensibly rational Englishman should want to work for them. They were, thankfully, prepared to give me the benefit of the doubt. And lo, I became an editor in the company’s Medlife team.

Prior to joining Cactus, I had never seriously contemplated a career with words (albeit other peoples). My academic and employment career had been firmly rooted in the life sciences—MSc. in Plant Biotechnology, PhD. in Butterfly Conservation Ecology, research experience in microbiology and plant genetics. At university though, several lecturers, perhaps discerning some latent literary talent, had encouraged me to try my hand either as a science journalist or technical writer. But I knew my deficiencies in written English would soon find me wanting. At school, I had somehow conspired to evade grammar lessons. My knowledge of the English language had been acquired largely by default—I was after all English. Yet, within a few weeks of joining Cactus, their trainers had put to rights my schoolboy negligence. I learnt that commas were not to be sprinkled like confetti, that “sulfur” and “color” were not spelling mistakes, and that post modification was not a change in letter delivery times. Above all, I learnt that grammar could—dare I say it—be interesting. Being taught the fundamentals of my mother tongue by people from a foreign land, half my age, was indeed a humbling experience. It was also immensely gratifying. Here were people—many of whom would probably never set foot in “England’s green and pleasant land”—so passionate about something most Anglo-Saxon Brits take very much for granted.

At the time of writing, I have been editoring away for the best part of year. My colleagues, I guess, are still vaguely mystified as to why this respectable, reserved, slightly eccentric Englishman is working in their midst. But they’re an amiable bunch and seem to graciously tolerate my little foibles.

Any regrets? None at all, I am living the dream. Nowadays, with only the next editorial deadline to fret about, its goodbye midlife crisis, hello Medlife crisis.

I received my PhD from Oxford University in 2003, having published a number of articles in various international journals (e.g., PNAS, PLoS, Vaccine and Nature), on subjects ranging from epidemiology, public health and evolution to cognition and behavior. I have also participated as an invited speaker in universities in various countries (Cornell, Oxford, Cambridge, among others), and taught statistics, data analysis and experimental design for over five years for graduate and undergraduate students. In 2004, I started working as an independent consultant in the fields of Epidemiology, Evolution, Ecology, Medical Sciences and Experimental Psychology for various institutions in the UK and the US, providing analytical and technical solutions in the analysis of large and complex volumes of data and epidemiological time-series. More recently, I also started working as a scientific editor, having now edited hundreds of scientific manuscripts, grant proposals and technical reports for authors with various language backgrounds.

Given my experience as a reviewer for various scientific journals, in 2010, I joined the team at Cactus Communications to work as a freelance peer-reviewer. As a scientist myself, I find it very rewarding to be able to assist other scientists to improve their research papers and get their work published in international journals. And Cactus has provided me with the opportunity to use my expertise and background training to help their clients to produce their best possible research manuscripts. Each new assignment I receive from Cactus represents a new opportunity for me to delve into a different area of knowledge through the research of their clients, making it a very enriching experience. The staff at Cactus has been always very professional, friendly and efficient, in a relationship grounded in respect and commitment to the quality of the work that is produced. In addition to the privilege of being able to determine my own schedule and work load, the detailed and organized description of all assignments sent by Cactus also make my work much easier and less error prone. The coordinators are also flexible, receptive and warm, always offering support and guidance, and creating a very positive working atmosphere. Overall, working for Cactus has been a very motivating and professionally rewarding experience, one that I expect to maintain for many years to come.

There are many roads that lead to freelance editing. My own included 12 years spent teaching EFL and English Composition in Rome, Italy, and 14 years as a teacher, school administrator, and tech editor in the U.S. Though my life revolved around words, I became tired of the bustle of schools and offices and the daily commute.

I decided to become a full-time freelance editor, and was eventually fortunate to become allied with Cactus Communications. I was on the lookout for a stable relationship with a congenial company that would provide a steady flow of assignments. In Cactus I was lucky enough to find all of this.

Beginning with the skill test they gave me and the contract that followed, it was clear that I had not contacted some impersonal “agency” that anonymously dispatches work, but rather, an organization of caring people who were committed to both their editors and clients. In short, a team I could become part of.

This first impression has only deepened over time.

The friendly informality of the staff, which I experience in emails on a daily basis, is grounded in a high degree of professionalism. On occasion, Cactus has sent me thorough and intensive analyses of my edits, along with suggestions and resources for future reference. To this end, they have also created an online resource with guidelines, style sheets, and suggestions that reflects the importance they give to both editors and clients. It is a pleasure to be on a team that continually improves and is always trying to work at a higher standard, but without the lunatic perfectionism that corporate ambition often engenders.

For me, then, Cactus has been all that I could ask for in terms of steady workflow, serious respect for our work together, punctual payment, and all the practicalities of our relationship. It has also exceeded my expectations in terms of communicativeness and humanity. In the solitary world of the freelancer, who pecks away alone hour after hour, struggling to harmonize linguistic dissonance, this matters a lot.

Best of all, Cactus has some excellent entrepreneurs who have established a growing network of prestigious clients in scientific and academic communities throughout the Pacific Rim. This is a sign of corporate strength and savvy, much appreciated by freelancers like myself who, like baby birds, sit in our nests waiting for Mother Bird to bring us a steady supply of fresh warm worms!

A native of Japan, I spent my childhood in the United States. I returned to attend high school and college in Japan and graduated with a degree in chemical engineering. Pulled by the desire to do basic science, I “returned again” to the States to pursue graduate studies. Starting with a brief research internship in psychology, I went on to obtain a doctorate in the field and then pursued postdoctoral research in neuroscience. Little did I know at the time that I was preparing myself for an editing career!

In retrospect, editing has been a big part of my life in science. Designing experiments; writing and reworking manuscripts; reviewing, grading, and editing papers; and more recently, translating manuscripts from Japanese to English and vice versa; throughout these experiences, I had been working to hone my editing skills. Yet in my “cactus”-like persistence to pursue an academic research career, I only belatedly came to realize what I really enjoyed: working with ideas in general and conveying them in a clear and understandable way. That was my hunch, but how to test the idea?

That was when I began working with Cactus as a freelancer, in the fall of 2009. The experience since then has confirmed my test; it has been nothing short of rejuvenating. I do really enjoy working with ideas broadly and helping others convey them clearly, logically, and convincingly. In addition to all the benefits of working from home, in an odd way I now feel more connected to the larger economy as a whole, since I know that I am truly fulfilling my customers’ needs. I particularly enjoy working with the online editing system, which offers me just the right balance of boundaries and freedom as an editor. Finally, the process of working with my colleagues has been rewarding beyond measure, thanks to the excellent backup support and training programs. All in all, my working relationship with Cactus has been the perfect mix of freedom, responsibility, and mutual respect. I hope to make it last like the plant as well.

I have been a freelance writer, editor and proofreader since 2002, and have worked with a variety of agencies and companies, ranging from two-designer studios to corporations with 500+ employees. I love having the ability to set my own hours and avoid early-morning commutes to work. These benefits have been a godsend in the last two years in particular, as they have allowed me to be a stay-at-home mom while working as a professional in a line of work that I absolutely love. (I also cannot deny how nice it is, to claim a portion of my living expenses—including everything from rent to utilities and household insurance—as a business expense, and thus reduce my income taxes here in Canada.) In short, I love " being my own boss," and I would never, ever consider going back to the " 9 to 5 grind."

I particularly enjoy working with Cactus. Many individuals—especially those from companies with in-house editors and proofreaders—hold the erroneous belief that freelancers are self-employed because they cannot hold down a " normal" job. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth, and the people at Cactus understand this; they have always treated me with the utmost in respect and professionalism, and our work relationship has been mutually beneficial and symbiotic.

I would recommend working with Cactus to any freelance editor or proofreader. In working with Cactus, the respect that tends to be lacking in our line of work is found in abundant supply, and it is evidenced in everything they do: clear explanations of client expectations, before work begins; prompt responses to my questions and queries; constructive criticism, rather than blame or finger-pointing, when the inevitable issue arises; and prompt payment of invoices. I truly could not ask for more, from a business relationship.

Working for Cactus Communications as a freelancer is a great opportunity for me. I enjoy being part of the global economy while working from my home. I hope to spend a year or more living abroad someday, and freelancing for Cactus will allow me to work productively anywhere in the world. I appreciate being able to set my own hours and determine my workload. Cactus has been great about providing this flexibility while still ensuring timely and quality work from its freelancers.

As a scientist myself, I receive personal satisfaction from the contribution we make in assisting other scientists and researchers worldwide to get their work published in international journals, ensuring that it receives the attention it deserves and contributes meaningfully to the body of science. It's always interesting to see what topic I will be assigned next, and to update my knowledge in that area through the research of our clients. Each paper teaches me something new in return for my efforts. As a peer-reviewer for a number of scientific journals, I also appreciate the opportunity to go beyond traditional English-language editing and work with the scientific presentation and substance of the articles, for those authors who request that level of review. This allows me to bring my full range of expertise to bear to assist our clients in producing their best possible research article.