A good research editor is someone knowledgeable, detail-oriented, and able to communicate effectively with others. When you ask the Journal Lab team whom they think fits the bill, Lyzelle, one of our very own research editors, presents herself as a strong contender. For this article, we sat down with Lyzelle and talked about her experiences, projects, and passion for quality research. Read her story below, and witness how one person’s love for the environment led her to discover her love for research.
This article is about Lyzelle, one of Journal Lab’s research editors.
Tell us about your editing and publication experience, together with your background.
I am now in my second year as a Research Editor in Lexcode, but before that, I was a full-time graduate student at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, taking a master’s degree in Environmental Science. I also took my bachelor’s degree in Biology from the same university. In terms of editing and publication, I write and edit case studies, term papers, and guidelines, among others. I also worked on the Initial Environmental Examination Report (IEER) for one of the municipal health offices in Laguna and some Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports, specifically regarding the freshwater ecology component, for several development projects in the Philippines.
Lyzelle is a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps, a community of 31,000 strong working toward climate resiliency and a low-carbon, sustainable future.
What do you do daily as a research editor?
I usually monitor the requests from our clients and some projects or manuscripts submitted to various journals. Aside from this, I allot some of my time to researching technologies and other productivity tools that can help our editors work efficiently. As we’re looking for new members to join our team, I also handle some recruitment and training tasks.
“Don’t be afraid to have your work criticized and rejected.”
Do you have any advice for academics submitting their work?
I advise, “Don’t be afraid to have your work criticized and rejected.” In a fast-paced environment and generation, failing or having your work criticized makes us feel like we’ve wasted so much time or we’re running late. However, one way to see what’s lacking in our research is to have it critiqued by experts in your field.
Before sending a manuscript to Journal Lab editors, what should an author do first?
Authors should first know the level of editing needed for their work, whether it should be General Editing, which covers grammaticality, or Scholar Editing, the more in-depth editing service with critique. If they are still uncertain of their work’s quality and need an expert in their field to review the soundness of their research, we recommend they avail of our Expert Review service. For authors who are already finished with their manuscript but don’t know which journal to submit to, it’s best if they share their requirements and preferences (e.g., publication time, target impact factor, acceptance rate, etc.), so we can give them a data-driven and expert-led journal recommendation.
“Working at Journal Lab has helped me deepen my understanding of fields of knowledge different from my own.”
What do you like most about working at Journal Lab?
Working at Journal Lab has helped me deepen my understanding of fields of knowledge different from my own. I am able to broaden my perspective as a researcher, reader, and editor by learning from the experts in those fields. I can gain insights into not only the content of their work but also their approaches, methods, and perspectives. This way, my knowledge and experiences as a writer, editor, and researcher are enriched.
What kind of papers do you enjoy reading?
I really enjoy manuscripts related to biochemistry, pathology, environmental science, and psychology. Because of my background in biology, reading and editing papers with scientific names excite me. Recently, we’ve handled some projects that were not full-blown academic papers but were still related to sustainability and development, so I’ve been enjoying those too.
How do you continue improving your editing skillset?
As an editor, every day is an avenue to learn new things, so I take time to read the developments related to our job. I also refer to some style guides commonly used as references in formatting manuscripts to help me know more about editing style beyond in-text citations and reference formatting. Finally, I try to edit more files other than academic and scientific files to familiarize myself with the tone, flow, and jargon of different file types, such as legal, promotional, and corporate.
What research subjects are you most interested in at the moment?
Currently, I am most interested in environmental pollution and toxicology, aquatic ecology, and biochemistry. Specifically, I am looking into the presence and abundance of microplastics in table salts here in the Philippines.
Research Editor Spotlight: Lyzelle
A good research editor is someone knowledgeable, detail-oriented, and able to communicate effectively with others. When you ask the Journal Lab team whom they think fits the bill, Lyzelle, one of our very own research editors, presents herself as a strong contender. For this article, we sat down with Lyzelle and talked about her experiences, projects, and passion for quality research. Read her story below, and witness how one person’s love for the environment led her to discover her love for research.
Tell us about your editing and publication experience, together with your background.
I am now in my second year as a Research Editor in Lexcode, but before that, I was a full-time graduate student at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, taking a master’s degree in Environmental Science. I also took my bachelor’s degree in Biology from the same university. In terms of editing and publication, I write and edit case studies, term papers, and guidelines, among others. I also worked on the Initial Environmental Examination Report (IEER) for one of the municipal health offices in Laguna and some Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports, specifically regarding the freshwater ecology component, for several development projects in the Philippines.
What do you do daily as a research editor?
I usually monitor the requests from our clients and some projects or manuscripts submitted to various journals. Aside from this, I allot some of my time to researching technologies and other productivity tools that can help our editors work efficiently. As we’re looking for new members to join our team, I also handle some recruitment and training tasks.
“Don’t be afraid to have your work criticized and rejected.”
Do you have any advice for academics submitting their work?
I advise, “Don’t be afraid to have your work criticized and rejected.” In a fast-paced environment and generation, failing or having your work criticized makes us feel like we’ve wasted so much time or we’re running late. However, one way to see what’s lacking in our research is to have it critiqued by experts in your field.
Before sending a manuscript to Journal Lab editors, what should an author do first?
Authors should first know the level of editing needed for their work, whether it should be General Editing, which covers grammaticality, or Scholar Editing, the more in-depth editing service with critique. If they are still uncertain of their work’s quality and need an expert in their field to review the soundness of their research, we recommend they avail of our Expert Review service. For authors who are already finished with their manuscript but don’t know which journal to submit to, it’s best if they share their requirements and preferences (e.g., publication time, target impact factor, acceptance rate, etc.), so we can give them a data-driven and expert-led journal recommendation.
“Working at Journal Lab has helped me deepen my understanding of fields of knowledge different from my own.”
What do you like most about working at Journal Lab?
Working at Journal Lab has helped me deepen my understanding of fields of knowledge different from my own. I am able to broaden my perspective as a researcher, reader, and editor by learning from the experts in those fields. I can gain insights into not only the content of their work but also their approaches, methods, and perspectives. This way, my knowledge and experiences as a writer, editor, and researcher are enriched.
What kind of papers do you enjoy reading?
I really enjoy manuscripts related to biochemistry, pathology, environmental science, and psychology. Because of my background in biology, reading and editing papers with scientific names excite me. Recently, we’ve handled some projects that were not full-blown academic papers but were still related to sustainability and development, so I’ve been enjoying those too.
How do you continue improving your editing skillset?
As an editor, every day is an avenue to learn new things, so I take time to read the developments related to our job. I also refer to some style guides commonly used as references in formatting manuscripts to help me know more about editing style beyond in-text citations and reference formatting. Finally, I try to edit more files other than academic and scientific files to familiarize myself with the tone, flow, and jargon of different file types, such as legal, promotional, and corporate.
What research subjects are you most interested in at the moment?
Currently, I am most interested in environmental pollution and toxicology, aquatic ecology, and biochemistry. Specifically, I am looking into the presence and abundance of microplastics in table salts here in the Philippines.