Integrating Mentorship Into Your Daily Work

MODERATOR: Barbara Gastel Texas A&M University SPEAKERS: Erica Goodoff The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Katie Duelm Texas A&M University Press Rajnish Mehrotra Journal of the American Society of Nephrology REPORTER: Leslie Neistadt Saint Louis University In our work as scientific publishing professionals, many of us routinely serve as mentors—to authors, junior colleagues, new copy editors, and others. For this session, Barbara Gastel (a long-time mentor herself) brought together 3 experts to share their perspectives on how different types of mentoring can be integrated into our daily work. Senior Scientific Editor Erica Goodoff works directly with faculty and trainees at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center on research proposals, grant applications, and other documents. With a background in liberal arts, she started her career as a managing editor at a small publishing house and now considers mentoring, both formal and informal, an important aspect of her role at MD Anderson. In working with authors, she aims to present the content as clearly as possible without suppressing the author’s voice. She often edits in stages: substantive comments followed by line editing. Thoughtful querying can help authors focus the information in their papers. Goodoff’s department, the Research Medical Library, offers 1-hour workshops and presentations on various aspects of writing and publishing scientific articles, reminding authors that their department is always ready to assist them. With language, style, and scientific fields constantly evolving, the editors mentor each other to stay professionally relevant. The Scientific Editing Internship through the […]