The Office of Scientific Writing (OSW) is a virtual office staffed by people with expertise in scientific writing and publishing who can assist College faculty and staff members with research-related writing projects such as journal manuscripts.

OSW staff can assist at any point in the writing process, from early drafting stages to final copy editing and preparing to submit to a journal or UK IRB. (Note that the OSW, at least temporarily, is no longer assisting with grant applications or IRB protocols.  Grant writers are encouraged to contact the Proposal Development Office for help. Those working on IRB documents should consult the Office of Research Integrity website for guidance.) For journal manuscripts, authors often involve the OSW when a working draft is in hand. Those who have used OSW services have remarked that having someone outside the coauthor group read, edit, and comment on a draft typically results in clearer, more publishable, and more impactful manuscripts. In addition to helping to write, edit, and revise text, the OSW can help create publication-quality graphs and other visuals. The OSW does not format citations and bibliographies/reference lists; however, OSW staff can answer questions about using bibliographic software such as EndNote.

The OSW operates on a first-come, first-served basis, so the current workload can influence turn-around time. Also, the type of services you request, and the state or quality of the manuscript can impact timing. Given all that, OSW staff can usually return marked-up materials to the author within two weeks, often less. In general, try to give the OSW a few weeks of lead time, but don’t hesitate to request services even if you have a very tight timeline. Arrangements can often be made. Also, note that many journal manuscripts benefit from two editing cycles with the OSW—the first to address higher-level issues of cohesiveness and clarity, the second to address the details of copy editing and formatting.

The OSW staff is very sensitive to the proprietary nature of the methods, findings, and ideas articulated in journal manuscripts. Nothing you submit to the OSW will be shared or discussed with anyone except you and your designees.

Journal manuscripts are read and edited by Steve Claas. Steve has a bachelor’s degree in zoology and a master’s degree in scientific and technical communication. He has been involved in environmental and public health research for over 25 years, coauthored ~50 journal articles and book chapters, edited ten volumes of full-manuscript conference proceedings, and worked as a journal managing editor. He has been using computer graphics software since before the invention of color.