BioMed Central Blog
Guest Blog - EquityEdit: Expanding Access to Biomedical Innovations
This guest blog entry is from Duncan Smith-Rohrberg Maru, an
MD/PhD student at the Yale University School of
Medicine. Duncan describes
the recently launched non-profit organization, EquityEdit, which aims to expand
access to the research literature for authors whose first language is not
English, whilst also contributing funding to health initiatives in developing
countries.
EquityEdit is a new non-profit organization that capitalizes on the expanding market for high-quality technical editing to generate sustainable funding for innovations in global public health. In partnership with for-profit biomedical editing companies, we recruit and train scientists from diverse backgrounds to edit manuscripts written by researchers for whom English is a second language. A portion of the compensation they earn is then donated to small, innovative, pro-poor global health organizations as a sustainable source of long-term financing. Additionally, in exchange for the value-added EquityEdit provides to for-profit partners in terms of public relations, personnel management, marketing, and technical innovations, its for-profit partners provide an additional donation as a percentage of the revenue from each order. Through this means, EquityEdit improves access to biomedical innovations on two fronts: on the one hand by improving communication among scientists from non-English-speaking countries and on the other by delivering sustainable and flexible financing to healthcare organizations delivering medical and public health interventions to the global poor.
The globalization of science through a primarily English-language medium has left scientists from non-English-speaking countries at a distinct disadvantage in communicating their research. Despite the expansion of scientific editing companies, the demand for editing services outstrips the supply. A major issue faced by editing companies is finding talented, reliable editors with sufficient biomedical and scientific backgrounds to provide services to their clients. At the same time, scientists desire to see the fruits of their research borne in resource-poor countries. While scientists tend to be knowledgeable about and sympathetic to global health issues, they lack avenues to allow them to make a real contribution to global public health. The EquityEdit model provides them the opportunity to apply their highly valued scientific expertise to a task that provides a specific monetary value—on the order of $40-$100 per hour—to their services, while contributing the remaining editing profits to a medical relief organization.
Furthermore, the EquityEdit mechanism provides sustainable, long-term financing to innovative global public health organizations. While numerous mechanisms do exist for global health financing, few opportunities are available for small, innovative enterprises to develop novel solutions to pressing public health problems. EquityEdit chooses beneficiaries with transparent and open practices so that editors can monitor the way in which the donations they generate are used to create social change.
To maximize revenue to participating non-profit beneficiaries, the management team of EquityEdit remains all-volunteer. Since these volunteers are unpaid, other incentives exist to create a sustainable management structure. The primary incentive is their desire to fundraise for the nonprofit beneficiary. To facilitate this, a major criteria for an EquityEdit beneficiary (in addition to being small, innovative, pro-poor) is that they have at least one executive or board member who is qualified and interested in improving EquityEdit. This is a key aspect of developing a sustainable model that doesn't require a paid executive director, since the beneficiary executive would be significantly invested in the financial success of EquityEdit. Once a non-profit joins, the goal would be to quickly expand to and sustain annual revenue streams of $100,000 for the non-profit. This revenue would continue for at least five years, during which time the point-person at the non-profit would be expected to engage in improving EquityEdit.
In addition to recruiting and training a team of experienced editors, EquityEdit provides for profit partners with value-added in marketing and in IT innovations that produce greater efficiencies. EquityEdit harnesses the efficiency of the market, the reach of the internet, and the power of self-interested goodwill. Importantly, EquityEdit reduces costs, increases exposure, and offers tax incentives to for-profit editing businesses, which makes engaging in this charitable activity good for their bottom line. The exact proportion of funds distributed to the editing company, editor, and non-profit beneficiary is set by a contractual arrangement between the company and editor.
There are several present opportunities to get involved with or contribute to EquityEdit.
Corporate Partnerships
If you work for a corporation that might benefit from a collaboration with EquityEdit, please contact editor(AT)equityedit(DOT)org.
Volunteer Leadership Positions
To further improve our model, we are looking for individuals with backgrounds in marketing, social enterprise, biomedicine, technical editing, and public health. Please contact editor(AT)equityedit(DOT)org if interested in joining our team, providing a one-paragraph cover email detailing your relevant background and interests in EquityEdit.
Paid Editors
If you are interested in becoming a paid editor, please apply at http://www.equityedit.org/apply.html. Note that you must have significant first-author publication experience to be considered as an editor. We are also looking for scientists who are conversant in Japanese who can act as translators. Please apply through the same applicant portal.
Duncan Smith-Rohrberg Maru
Co-founder, EquityEdit
Posted by Matthew Cockerill at 12:38 Comments (0)
