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I have been at the RSC for ten months now, so am nearing the end of my year on the graduate Publishing scheme. The time seems to have flown by! I work on the Analytical team, where we deal with four journals and a series of databases.
 
When I first arrived I began my training on the database Analytical Abstracts, a current awareness and information retrieval service for analytical chemists worldwide. The work involves searching the literature in this field for relevant new articles, then indexing them for inclusion in the database according to the analytes and techniques used. As my chemistry background is not strongly analytical, I’ve found it really interesting to read papers in a field quite new to me, and it seems I’ve learned a lot in a short space of time!
 
I now divide my time between working on the database and the four journals in our team: Analyst, Analytical Methods, JAAS and Metallomics. I have so far been trained in the technical editing aspect of journal work (involving all stages between the acceptance of a manuscript and its publication), and I’ve now just started my training in the peer review process (dealing with manuscripts from submission to acceptance). There are several stages to the process, but at the moment I’m learning to find suitable referees for each manuscript and look at their comments, and then decide whether or not to accept the manuscript for publication - today I accepted my first one!
 
With all the different aspects of dealing with manuscripts as well as working on the database, my job is very varied and I’m never doing the same thing for long! After my degree and PhD, I was looking to stay involved with chemistry without working in the lab, and working in publishing is an ideal way to do that – I’m able to use and expand my chemistry knowledge and read about the latest research, and I honestly don’t miss the lab at all!

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Sarah is a Graduate working in the Royal Society of Chemistry's Publishing Department. To see if there are any current vacancies go to 'RSC: Latest Vacancies' Blog or subscribe to 'RSC: Latest Vacancies' by Email