The Future of Medical Editing: My Experience at the JAMA Network Internship

The JAMA Network journals—like many medical journals—publish extensive research on the effects of systemic racism on health and the health care industry. It is now well-understood that we need a health care workforce that matches the diversity of the United States and that of other countries, in terms of sex and gender, race and ethnicity, disability, and socioeconomic background. Among many obstacles, an important one is a pathway problem; that is, not enough candidates join the field who are underrepresented in medicine. These opportunities and obstacles also apply to medical editing. The JAMA Network medical editing internship program is designed for a third- or fourth-year college student who is underrepresented in medical editing. The goal is simple: to introduce young people to the field so they know to look for these sorts of jobs when they graduate and can succeed when they are hired. We met a number of excellent candidates—so many that we plan to expand the program in the near future—and ended up bringing on Melissa Leon, a third-year student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Twice a week for 8 weeks, Melissa worked closely with manuscript editors, managing editors, editorial assistants, and our graphics and proofreading teams to see how an article goes from acceptance to publication. Along the way, she received the greatest hits of the AMA Manual of Style—everything from correct and preferred usage to statistical editing. Our hope is that this program continues and expands and is adopted by other major medical journals […]