Medical Editing and Proofreading: A Guide for Beginners
We focus on academic, creative, and business writing in the Becoming A Proofreader and Becoming An Editor courses. But another rewarding area where proofreaders and editors may find work is medical editing. Here, we’ll outline what to expect when working in medical editing, how to build the necessary skills, and where to get started.
What Is Medical Editing?
Medical editing involves reviewing and refining documents focused on medicine and health care. Medical writing often overlaps with academic and technical writing, with a tendency toward a formal, technical style, and often focuses on documents related to medical research. But medical proofreading and editing can be a more specialized discipline, incorporating many document and writing types beyond just medical research.
Medical editors ensure accuracy, consistency, readability, and compliance with specific style guides. This field typically demands familiarity with scientific terminology, attention to detail, and the ability to convey complex information clearly.
A medical editor may:
- Correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors
- Clarify complex language
- Standardize terminology and abbreviations
- Ensure adherence to specific style guides
- Check that references and formatting match the style specified
- Collaborate with medical writers, regulatory teams, and journal editors
Typical clients for medical editors include individual authors, publishers, universities and research institutions, medical communications agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and companies producing online medical resources for patients. It is also common for medical editors to work with clients who speak English as a second language.
Types of Medical Writing
Medical editors can work on a wide range of documents. The work varies in tone and complexity depending on the document’s purpose and audience. Broadly, though, we can identify three key types of medical writing:
Regulatory Documents
Regulatory writing includes documents related to the approval process for drugs, such as clinical study reports and package inserts for medicines. Regulatory writing is usually extremely formal and technical. It may also need to follow a specific style and structure dictated by the relevant regulatory body. For example, the Common Technical Document is a set of specifications for applying to register a new drug in many countries.
Educational and Research Materials
These include materials covering research in medicine and health care (e.g., journal articles) and materials used in medical education and professional development (e.g., textbooks). The writing for both is typically formal and technical, and follows the conventions set out in relation to academic writing in general.
Medical Communications
Medical communications material aims to inform audiences about topics related to medicine and health care. The material can be aimed at specialist audiences (e.g., newsletter articles for medical professionals or promotional materials aimed at doctors) or at lay audiences (e.g., patient guides and information). It also includes marketing materials, such as for new drugs. There is more scope for stylistic variation here, and a medical editor may need to help authors simplify complex ideas to communicate them to nonexperts effectively.
Key Features of Medical Writing
While documents vary, most medical writing shares the following features:
- A dry, objective, impersonal authorial voice and an overall formal tone
- Specialized technical language used very precisely
- Heavy use of acronyms and other abbreviations
- Use of figures, tables, and charts to present complex information
- Use of equations, statistics, and other numerical data
- Detailed referencing of sources
- Standardized structure (either some variation on the IMRaD format commonly used in scientific research or a format dictated by the relevant regulatory body)
Medical writing shares a lot of features with academic writing, particularly scientific research. But the exact requirements for writing style and how information is presented will often depend on the style guide used. We’ll look briefly at medical style guides next.
Medical Style Guides
To work effectively, medical editors need to be familiar with medical style guides. These include:
- The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommendations on preparing manuscripts (which are used by many medical journals)
- The ICMJE’s Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, a common citation style recommended by the National Library of Medicine
- The American Medical Association’s AMA Manual of Style (commonly used across many medical disciplines, especially in the US)
- APA style (commonly used by journals and research organizations that focus on behavioral medicine)
- In-house style guides and sheets, which can be useful for adapting the ICMJE recommendations for particular regions (e.g., the BMJ’s house style recommends Vancouver style referencing based on the NLM guide but also permits British English spelling)
It is worth researching these style guides if you want to work as a medical proofreader or editor. And, as always, you will need to check with clients about which style guide to use before you start editing their work.
How to Become a Medical Editor
Understand the Required Background
Most medical proofreaders and editors have at least some background in medicine, health care, or the sciences in general. This could include formal education, work experience in clinical or research settings, or even extensive familiarity with medical literature. That said, a scientific degree isn’t strictly necessary – strong editing skills paired with a solid grasp of scientific concepts can be just as valuable.
If you’re new to the field, start by immersing yourself in the language and conventions of medical writing. Read peer-reviewed journal articles, study glossaries of medical terminology, and pay attention to how scientific arguments are structured and supported by data. Familiarity with how medicine, biology, and research are communicated will help you avoid common errors and build confidence with technical material.
If you plan to offer substantive editing services for complex medical writing, though, specific subject expertise may be necessary. For instance, editing a clinical trial protocol or a pharmacological study without a strong understanding of the concepts involved could lead to misinterpretation or factual inconsistencies. In such cases, editors often hold advanced degrees or certifications in life sciences or have significant industry experience.
Top tip: Consider focusing on a niche area (e.g., oncology, mental health, or pharmacology) where you can develop deeper expertise. This not only builds your credibility but can also lead to higher-paying, more specialized editing opportunities.
Develop Foundational Editing Skills
Before you begin working with medical content, it’s essential to have a firm command of core proofreading and editing skills. This means more than just catching typos – it involves a deep understanding of grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, tone, formatting, and style.
Medical writing is held to particularly high standards, both in terms of accuracy and professionalism. Any lapses when proofreading or editing can reflect poorly on the author, and by extension, on the editor. That’s why building your editing foundation is critical. Strong fundamentals allow you to focus on the unique challenges of medical content, such as technical jargon, data-heavy language, and complex sentence constructions.
Our Becoming A Proofreader and Becoming An Editor courses – available together as part of our comprehensive Proofreader & Editor Course Bundle – are designed to help you develop this foundation.
Top tip: Medical editing often involves editing documents in Microsoft Word with tracked changes, so familiarity with that tool, along with citation managers like EndNote or Zotero, will also serve you well.
Build Knowledge of Medical Terminology
Medical writing is filled with highly specialized terminology – from Latin-based anatomical terms to abbreviations for pharmaceuticals and statistical methods. As a medical editor, you must be able to recognize these terms, understand their meaning, and identify when they’re used inaccurately or inconsistently. This doesn’t mean memorizing every term, but it does mean knowing how to verify definitions, understand context, and spot red flags.
Online resources like WebMD, the NHS website, and the MSD Manuals offer accessible ways to explore key medical concepts and vocabulary. For deeper dives, the PubMed database is invaluable for researching terminology in scholarly contexts.
A reliable medical dictionary – such as Stedman’s Online Medical Dictionary or Dorland’s Medical Dictionary Online – should also be a permanent fixture in your toolkit.
Additionally, these trusted guides can help you build a more robust understanding of the field:
- The Complete Guide to Medical Writing, edited by Mark Stuart (a practical overview of writing in clinical and regulatory settings)
- Medical Writing: A Guide for Clinicians, Educators, and Researchers by Robert B. Taylor (focuses on writing and editing for health care professionals)
- Targeted Regulatory Writing Techniques, edited by Linda Fossati Wood and MaryAnn Foote (a valuable resource for those interested in regulatory editing)
- A–Z of Medical Writing by Tim Albert (a quick-reference handbook of writing principles and advice)
- Writing in the Biological Sciences: A Comprehensive Resource for Scientific Communication by Angelika H.Hofman
Top tip: As you build your medical vocabulary, create your own glossary of unfamiliar terms you encounter while editing. Include definitions, example usage, and notes on context or common pitfalls. Over time, this personalized resource will speed up your workflow and deepen your subject knowledge.
Gain Practical Editing Experience
The best way to improve as a medical editor is by practicing on real materials. Start by reading a variety of documents – such as journal articles, clinical summaries, and patient leaflets – to understand how medical information is structured and conveyed.
Then, get hands-on experience:
- Practice editing open-access articles to hone your eye for clarity, tone, and terminology.
- Volunteer with student journals or health nonprofits to gain real-world experience.
- Build a portfolio by tracking the types of documents you edit, noting the challenges and your approach.
- Join editing communities (more on this to come) to share work, get feedback, and learn from peers.
Top tip: Even small projects help build confidence. The more document types you encounter, the more prepared you’ll be for paid editing work.
Earn Industry Certifications
While not essential, certifications can set you apart in a competitive field. They signal to clients and employers that you’re serious about your craft and committed to maintaining high professional standards.
- The Board of Editors in the Life Sciences (BELS) offers a globally respected credential specifically for editors working with scientific and medical content. Passing the BELS exam demonstrates proficiency in style, language, and subject-specific editing conventions.
- The Council of Science Editors (CSE) is another valuable resource, offering training, professional development events, and networking opportunities with peers and potential clients.
These certifications aren’t required to get started, but they may tip the scales when applying for roles or bidding for projects.
Top tip: Plan ahead! Both BELS and CSE offer prep materials and sample questions. Even if you’re not ready to certify yet, reviewing their content is a great way to benchmark your skills and identify areas for growth.
Join Professional Editorial Networks
Professional organizations are a valuable way to connect with experienced editors, discover job opportunities, and stay on top of industry developments. While we’ve already covered the benefits of certification through BELS and the educational resources offered by the CSE, there are additional networks worth exploring.
Organizations such as the American Medical Writers Association and the European Association of Science Editors offer member directories, online forums, webinars, and annual conferences. Participation can also expose you to the latest tools, regulatory updates, and style guide revisions relevant to medical editing.
Top tip: Don’t just join – engage! Attend virtual meetups, contribute to discussion boards, or volunteer on a committee. Active involvement can lead to mentorship, referrals, and freelance work.
Become a Medical Editor
If you’re ready to start a career in medical editing or proofreading, the best place to begin is with Knowadays. Our Becoming A Proofreader course teaches the foundational skills you’ll need – such as correcting grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors, and adhering to style guidelines – while Becoming An Editor builds on that with guidance on editing for structure, style, and tone, as well as how to work with clients.
Buy our course bundle, which combines both courses, and you’ll save 15% compared to buying them separately.
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