English 
Deutsch Your tasks in this new position:
- Mechanical copy-editing/Copy-editing light with focus on deep proofreading (not creative copy-editing);
- Reading papers from both English native speakers and non-native speakers from all over the world, well-written and less well-written, to enforce inviolable grammar, spelling and punctuation while respecting the author’s personal stylistic preferences;
- Using a comprehensive check-list to comb through the text for typical errors and inconsistencies;
- Applying our client’s policy of copy-editing to manuscripts: spelling, grammar, articles/prepositions, punctuation, and word-choice corrections according to certain house rules and standards;
- Copy-editing English language pre-prints in LaTeX, working via our client’s online platform;
- Supporting authors from around the world by improving their manuscripts, thereby achieving higher credibility in the scientific community.
Type of copy-editing:
What this position is not about: Language Editing as in the creative copy-editing, working with the language, improving readability by changing phrasing, adding or deleting words, no content editing, no reorganizing or restructuring of the document, no type-coding, no developmental editing.
What this position is about: Light copy-editing of dense copy, on-screen with LaTeX and PDF, as in more heavy proofreading: a structured analytical combing through the text, closely reading for consistency, in accordance with the publisher's comprehensive house style guide.
Grammar and usage
- Read papers from both English native speakers and non-native speakers from all over the world, read well-written and less well-written papers (the authors are scientists, not linguists)
- Enforce inviolable grammar and punctuation and house rules while respecting the author’s personal stylistic preferences
- Run-on sentences and subject-verb agreement
Mechanical editing
- Use a comprehensive check-list to comb through the text for typical errors and inconsistencies
- Punctuation
- Spelling
- Correct use of English, depending on the dialect of the paper (e.g. English GB, English US)
- Hyphenation
- Capitalization
- Quotations
- Numbers and numerals
- Abbreviations and acronyms
- Additional elements, such as descriptions for charts, tables, and graphs
- Initialisms
- Page numbers, headers, and footers
- Underscoring
- Work with QC and type-setting teams
- Leave comments for the authors or the type-setting team regarding any issues for content editing or type-coding
- Receive feedback from QC and implement feedback and requests for corrections
- Have regular meetings with your allocated manuscripts-team from the publishing house
Your profile:
- You speak and write English at a native speaker level and have a passion for language.
- You have a university degree in linguistics, English or the natural sciences.
- You have some work experience and are familiar with academic texts.
- You have a keen eye for detail and an excellent command of English mechanics, punctuation, and grammar.
- You prefer mechanical copy-editing over creative copy-editing.
- You are motivated and possess good organizational and time-management skills.
- You are open-minded to learning new technologies for copy-editing.
- You can adhere to strict style guides and house rules and quality expectations.
- Knowledge of and experience with a markup-language such as LaTeX or html is a plus.
Important aspects we'd prefer you to be knowledgeable of:
- Be technically savvy, adaptive to learning new software;
- Understanding of VPN, TeamViewer, and Online-Meeting (screen sharing) usage;
- Overall a good grasp on general IT operations;
- Be very responsive and proactive with troubleshooting, and be communicative within a team;
- Have a professional and level-headed approach to challenges.
We offer:
- a starting monthly salary of between 15’000 – 25’000 ZAR (ctc FTE) depending on qualifications, experience and performance
- training and mentoring in LaTeX software and expected quality standards;
- a friendly working environment with open-minded colleagues
- a challenging and rewarding job with opportunities to contribute your unique talents
- a secure working position with performance-related allowances, and a family-friendly policy
- great colleagues from Germany and South Africa, as well as a dynamic, competent, agile team
- remote work with the possibility of in-office work if preferred
- reasonably flexible working hours within a time frame
