Requirements and Responsibilities - Scientific Writers

It is expected that Scientific Writers will already be skilled in the following areas:

• Searching databases
• Understanding differences in research methodologies
• Critically appraising the quality of different forms of evidence
• Summarizing evidence in a clear, coherent, and concise manner
• English spelling and grammar

Scientific Writers work externally to JBI, with the work performed remotely. Scientific Writers are assigned to a Field Editor and undertake a schedule of work to update existing Evidence Summaries. Most of the communication between Scientific Writers and JBI is via email.

It is a requirement that Scientific Writers have access to search specified databases (JBI Evidence Synthesis, Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews, PubMed/Medline, CINAHL) as well as full-text access to a wide range of online journal articles. Generally, this means that writers have institutional access through their place of work or study allowing them subscription access to a wide range of online journals, and access to full-texts articles, and not just the abstracts.

For each writing project undertaken, the Production Coordinator will send a schedule to the Scientific Writer in an email, which contains the Evidence Summaries to be updated and the timelines by which the project should run. Where possible, we try to match the Evidence Summary topics to a writer’s specialty area(s), however, this may not always be possible as summaries requiring updates are prioritized requiring the scientific writer to work on any topic. Scientific Writers receive payment for work completed.

The time taken to update an Evidence Summary depends on the Scientific Writer’s literature searching skills and experience. The amount of content sent in each schedule can be tailored to suit the writer’s available time.

The terms of the agreement between JBI and Scientific Writers (‘Contributors’) are detailed in the Contributor Agreement. Contributor disclosures are collected annually and reviewed for relevant conflicts of interest by the editorial team. Scientific Writers are required to declare any conflicts of interest as they arise.

Once the update of the schedule is complete, the content should be emailed to jbisciwriter@adelaide.edu.au and the schedule will be assigned by the Production Coordinator to the Field Editor to arrange peer review.

The flow chart below outlines the steps in this process and who is responsible for each step for JBI Scientific Writer projects.

Blue=JBI, Green = Scientific Writer

When JBI advises that the updates are approved, the Scientific Writer should notify the Production Manager as to when they are available to receive further content.

Writers should inform the Production Manager of how many Evidence Summaries they wish to update and anticipated time frames for completion.

Scientific Writers who commit to a regular schedule will be preferred.