From Dark Days into the Light Came a Really Useful Copyeditors' and Proofreaders' Guide

My love of assemblage similar things began in early childhood, when I collected my parents' empty No. Six coffin nail packets. Hemorrhoid of them grew under my bed - luckily my parents weren't heavy tobacco users - until I got fed up with it and moved onto milk cartonfuls and autobus tickets. I had some unusual behaviors as a child! Luckily, I seemed to turn out of that, and went on to University to analyze biochemistry and chemical science to PhD level, and eventually moved into a calling in scientific & technical editing. Here, I was able to indulge my passionateness once more, especially when I became a freelance, having been made redundant 1 darkness twenty-four hours in May, back in 1988, when occupations were previously plentiful and had suddenly go scarce.

Rewinding a spot to my PhD days, a similar love grew, out of absolute frustration, of getting mentions absolutely right, dotting every i and crossing every t, in authors' name calling and addresses, and ensuring that every volume and page figure was spot-on. This was borne of necessity, when, as a student, feverishly studying and trying to compose my thesis, a stud or a cut out of topographic point in mention footing could spell disaster! This was all because I establish it so infuriating when some critical piece of information I needed to additional my research work or thesis authorship was missing, or inaccessible, owed to a mention being uncomplete or incorrectly typed.

After that, my obsessive compulsive upset was heavily reinforced by joining the Occident African Examinations Council, copyediting and proofreading and even typesetting Type O and A degree scrutiny papers. I felt it very of import work, ensuring that every examination inquiry read unambiguously and that all information was present and correct.

After that, it was the Biochemical Diary that took me under their wing, where I rote learned the housestyle manual, which was no mean value feat, as it was a ft thick! More listings were enthusiastically drawn up and checking of mentions doggedly undertaken, for fearfulness of penalty by flogging or worse. (They were difficult on new consumptions in those days.)

Then came a flimsy interlude at the Institute of Devil Dog Engineers where, although the work also carried the demand for keen truth and attending to detail, it wasn't quite so heavy on the style issues and so allowed some lighter undertakings, like desktop publication and design. Mind you, having go firmly obsessional compulsive by then, I wasn't easily set off, and tried to stomp my ain style onto things, I can state you! I wasn't about to give it up that easily. Fortunately, I stayed there for quite a piece and it almost cured me of my ailment, which carried over into my adjacent job, which was more than concern and accounting oriented, although under the pretense of scientific editing. Not much clip or phone call for such as listing devising activities there. Then, one day, out of the blue, bam! I was made redundant! What a shocker that was... I thought I would never raise my caput again and see the visible light of day, until, small by little, I discovered the pleases of independent redaction from home.

There, I could give full reign to my ardent desire to collect listings of anything that moved, or stood still long adequate on the page, and pass hours checking and rechecking those darned wrong mentions to my heart's content.

After a rickety start, as I tried out things like abstracting and indexing, I settled quite happily into copyediting and proofreading of assorted scientific books and journals, and didn't really look back. Once I was fully ensconced in the independent redaction world, I establish I had listings coming out of my ears, and the 1s I had made were extremely useful. Hence I began to inquire whether anyone else would happen them utile too.

These listings include:

Biochemical Book References

Diary abbreviations

Publishers' locations

Biochemical and Equipment Companies

Biochemical Diary Housestyle

Park Binomia

Abbreviations

Terminology

And then I distribute my wings a small more than and branched out into medicine, copyediting and proofing a couple of titles, and compiling the followers lists:

From the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and the British Checkup Journal:

Book references

Abbreviations

Terminology

Housestyle

Being a independent editor myself, I establish it made life so much easier that the listings were compiled from the existent Diary itself, rather than from the whole field of scientific discipline or medicine. It really narrowed things down and saved a batch of time, making things easier and clearer.

It took the clip and hurting out of looking things up on the Web or in big dust-covered tomes.

Compiled over a calling spanning 20 years, these ushers are for copyeditors, proofreaders, editors, authors and journalists: and include listings of housestyle, abbreviations, and nomenclature used, equipment manufacturers, university computer addresses and book and commonly used diary references.

Extracts:

From the Biochemical Diary

Abbreviations:

(note inferiors make not demo up in this article)

AdK, adenosine kinase

Ado, adenosine

AIP, autocamtide-2-related inhibitory peptide

ANT, adenine nucleotide translocator

AP, alkaline phosphatase

AP-1, activator protein-1

ARE, antioxidant response element

ATP, adenosine 5'-triphosphate

BCIP, 5-bromo-4-chloroindol-3-yl phosphate

BSA, bovid blood serum albumin

bZIP, basic part leucine zipper

C16:1, palmitoleic acid

C18:1, oleic acid

C18:2, linoleic acid

C20:4, arachidonic acid

[Ca2+]i, internal Ca2+ concentration

CaMKII, calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II

Housestyle:
En rules

(note en regulations make not demo up in this article - you have got to utilize your imagination!)

aminic acids 1-124

backbone-side-chain ...

Bi-Bi reaction mechanism

Cibacron Blue-agarose

20-22 °C

enzyme-substrate complex

excitation-contraction coupling

Figures 3A-3C

5-6-fold

Hewlett-Packard

KpnI-EcoRI

LdAdK-Ado adduct

Luria-Bertani medium

0.5-2 mg/ml

Michaelis-Menten equation

1-20 min

150-170 nM

nuclear-cytoplasmic shuttling

Italics:

(note Roman inferiors usually)

A550

cis

cytochrome c

de novo

DH (enthalpy change)

DpnI

gloA

G-6-P

Ins(1,4,5)P3

in utero

in vivo

in vitro

Ka

...

Journalists might happen the listings utile too, with book mentions galore, all individually checked and corrected.

Extract:

From the British Checkup Journal

Book mentions

De Mets DL. Data and safety monitoring boards. In: Redmond CK, Colton T, eds. Biostatistics in clinical trials. New York: Wiley, 2001.

Putnam RD. Bowling alone: the collapse and resurgence of the American community. New York: St Simon & Schuster, 2000.

Mental Health Foundation. Bright futures: promoting children and immature people's mental health. London: Mental Health Foundation, 1999.

Taylor MF. British family panel study user manual volume A: introduction, technical study and appendices. Colchester: University of Essex, 1999.

US Populace Health Service, Centers for Disease Control. CDC WONDER. http://wonder.cdc.gov (accessed 30 January 2006).

House of Park Health Committee. Child and adolescent mental wellness services. 4th Report. London: Stationery Office, 1997.

Scott S. Parenting programmes. In: Rutter M, Deems Taylor E, eds. Child and adolescent psychiatry. 4th ed. Oxford: Blackwell Science, 2002.

Rutter M, Deems Taylor E, eds. Child and adolescent psychiatry. 4th ed. London: Blackwell, 2002.

O'Hara M. Children and domestic violence. Highlight no 139. London: National Children's Bureau, 1995.

Hogg C, Richman N, Rutter M. Emotional and behavior jobs in childhood booklet. In: Sclare I, ed. Child psychological science portfolio. Windsor: NFER‑Nelson, 1997.

Audit Commission. Children in mind: kid and adolescent mental wellness services. London: Audited Account Commission, 1999.

Department of Health. Choosing health: making healthy picks easier. centimeter 6374. London: Stationery Office, 2004.

Patterson GR. Coercive household process. Eugene, OR: Castalia, 1982.

Hodges JR. Cognitive appraisal for clinicians. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

- - - - -

You might happen them utile whatever field of scientific discipline you are in.

If you don't see what you're looking for, allow me cognize which Journals/subject country you'd wish to see as a guide.

God bless neuroses and heavy science! Happy redaction and writing.

Email: debragoring@yahoo.co.uk