Guest Post: European Science Editors Helping Authors Publish

[Note: This week’s blog post is from Joan Marsh, president of the European Association of Science Editors. The post includes a link to a valuable set of guidelines. Thank you, Joan! —Barbara]

The European Association of Science Editors (EASE) is an international community of individuals from diverse backgrounds, linguistic traditions, and professional experience who share an interest in science communication and editing.

EASE organizes a Congress every 3 years and other workshops and seminars, all aimed at improving the standards of science publishing. Their next training event will be a workshop on how to be a successful journal editor, to be held in Warsaw, Poland, 5-6 February 2011. Further information will appear on the EASE website soon.

In addition, EASE publishes a journal, European Science Editing. This journal features articles, book and Web reviews, regional and country news, and information on resources. EASE also publishes a very popular Science Editors’ Handbook, covering everything from on-screen editing to office management and peer review.

EASE has an electronic forum for exchanging ideas or asking peers for advice on a tricky problem. The EASE website includes advertisements for jobs, courses, and services.

The latest EASE resource is a set of simple guidelines for authors and translators of scientific articles. These guidelines are aimed to make international scientific communication more efficient and to encourage scientists from around the world to contribute to the literature.

The guidelines are available in English and 7 other languages. If authors and translators follow these guidelines before submission, their manuscripts will be more likely to be accepted for publication. Moreover, the editorial process will tend to be faster, so authors, translators, reviewers, and editors will save time.

For more information on EASE resources and activities, see www.ease.org.uk.