Free Editing Help for NIH Fellows

The Fellows Editorial Board (FEB) was created in spring 2002 to meet the scientific editorial demands of postdoctoral and clinical fellows in the NCI Center for Cancer Research. Now, FEB provides free, fast and confidential scientific document editing services for the entire NIH and FDA fellow community.

At any given time, FEB has up to 40 members who edit submitted manuscripts, grant proposals, abstracts and other scientific documents for grammar, structure and clarity. However, FEB does not comment on scientific merit.

FEB is an all-volunteer organization composed of postdoctoral and clinical fellows. It accepts members from all NIH components; previous editing experience is not a requirement. However, due to the popularity of FEB, it is not uncommon for applicants to be on the wait list for 6 months.

The process is as follows: a senior editor assigns a manuscript to an associate editor. The associate then builds a team of three primary editors to thoroughly edit the submission. Although all board members review each submission for the weekly meeting, which is video-conferenced to NIH campuses in Baltimore, Frederick and North Carolina, the team leads the editing discussion for the manuscript. All editors’ comments are compiled and returned to the author, usually within 10 business days.

All NIH fellows (postbacs, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and clinical fellows) can submit their scientific documents to FEB. The research does not have to have been completed at NIH or FDA, but the submitting author must currently be an NIH or FDA fellow.

FEB has edited more than 920 documents to date; FEB-edited manuscripts have been published in journals including Molecular and Cellular Biology, Cancer Research, Oncogene, the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Molecular Cell and Neuroscience Research.

For more information, visit https://ccr.cancer.gov/trainee-resources-editorial-board for submission instructions and membership applications or send an email to FEB editors at ncieditors@mail.nih.gov.