Working and communicating successfully and appropriately with authors of all kinds – particularly if their first language is not English – is a skill that all editors must acquire. It comes with editorial experience and growing confidence, but it also helps to be naturally empathetic, patient and diplomatic, as well as have a sense of perspective.
Such was the basis of another excellent session, entitled ‘Collaborative Copyediting: Helping the Author Help You’ at the 2023 Council of Science Editors Annual Meeting in Toronto earlier this year, reported by Heather DiAngelis in September’s issue of Science Editor, in which presentations discussed how to work with non-native English-speaking authors and how to ask effective and respectful author queries, in order to bring out the best in the author–copyeditor relationship. Read the report at https://www.csescienceeditor.org/article/collaborative-copyediting-helping-the-author-help-you/.