As editor-in-chief of the Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana for over 10 years I have always encountered several problems with regard to correct, appropriate and fast proofreading, editing and typesetting in English for scientific writing. Such tasks require the deep knowledge of the language that would come from a highly educated native speaker and, no less importantly, an insightful eye that understands Science and, for the matter, Earth Sciences. To make things more difficult, as the majority of authors in our bulletin are native Spanish speakers, editors that can understand the meaning behind a panoply of typical mistakes in such a community of speakers are a major asset to a concerned editor. We have truly found someone that fulfills all we need in proofreading and editing in English, and that would be Tom.

That, and speed. As we keep publishing special thematic issues every year, their publication is time challenging because we need to guarantee the quality of the whole proofreading and editing process nonetheless. On time. Therefore, we also need someone who understands this particular need very clearly and that is up to the challenge without sacrificing neither speed nor quality. Tom worked alongside our technical edition team in two special issues that contained papers primarily in English, and we would definitely repeat such experiences as long as Tom were in.

Dear Tom,

I want to thank you for the service you provided of editing and proofreading my teaching and research statements which I included in my assistant professor job applications. I thought your corrections, comments and suggestions were excellent and implemented every single one. It was thus also a great learning experience for me.

I am sure you will be happy to learn that I've had an excellent response to these essays from the universities I applied to. I have since interviewed at several places and been told by search committee members that they were impressed by the essays. It is now clear to me that having well-written statements in a job application is extremely important. Even though such detail will not solely make an application, its absence can surely break it!

I look forward to having your editing and proofreading support down the road with my upcoming journal articles, and hopefully when the tenure evaluation comes around. ;)