Scientific Editor,
Dr. Mark Smith

I completed my BSc degree in Chemistry at Imperial College, London, with first class honors in 1993, and stayed on at Imperial to study for my PhD in organometallic chemistry, supervised by Professor Sue Gibson (née Thomas). My project was sponsored by the Associated Octel Company and involved spending two months working for them in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.

I subsequently worked as a teacher/lecturer at three tutorial colleges in central London, at two of which I was head of chemistry. Although I found this to be very rewarding, and it significantly improved my skills in organization, communication, and presentation, I wanted to find a career in which I could use my knowledge of chemistry to a greater extent, and develop skills in other areas. Another major attraction to working for Science of Synthesis, which I joined in the middle of 2003 as Assistant Scientific Editor, was the opportunity to work on a large project as part of a closely integrated team.

In my current position as Scientific Editor, much of my time is spent copyediting and proofreading authors’ manuscripts. This involves communicating with volume editors, members of the in-house and freelance team, and the authors themselves, to resolve queries and to ensure the style (for example, in nomenclature) is as clear and standardized as possible; every manuscript presents its own challenges. However, I also have a number of other responsibilities. I deal with copyright issues in house, maintain our list of caution statements for hazardous chemicals, and am the primary person in the editorial office for preparing feedback for authors on their preliminary tables of contents and sample pages. This last responsibility involves much discussion with our volume editors and is particularly important, as by ensuring that authors are familiar with our style and know what is expected of them from a very early stage, the later editorial processes run much more smoothly for all concerned. It is very satisfying to be able to significantly influence the efficient running of the entire project! I also have opportunities to attend international conferences, representing the editorial office and meeting authors, volume editors, and (potential) users of Science of Synthesis personally.

Working at Thieme has enabled me to learn German which, although not of primary importance to my everyday work, I have taken to keenly. I have also developed an understanding of the complexities of a very large publishing project, the challenges for which are sometimes difficult.