Language Data and Editorial Quality Intern

Department Summary:

​​C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News) produces authoritative, award-winning journalism from around the world of chemistry, including research, education, industry, funding, and regulatory policy. It is published by, but editorially independent of, the ACS. Its weekly magazine reaches more than 170,000 members of ACS, and its website receives more than 7 million page views per year.

Position Summary:

​​The Language Data and Editorial Quality Intern will help improve the accuracy, consistency, and editorial judgment of C&EN’s AI copyediting model. Working closely with editors, the senior copyeditor, and service provider, the incumbent will evaluate model outputs, annotate language errors, and refine guidelines that shape model behavior. In addition, the intern will be expected to contribute directly to workflows that support scalable, high-quality science journalism. The ideal candidate will bring strong copyediting skills, experience with structured data, attention to detail, and ideally a background in science journalism. ​ ​​ ​​​

Key Responsibilities:

• Review and evaluate AI-suggested copyediting changes for grammar, clarity, tone, and adherence to C&EN style
• Annotate and categorize language errors using required tools
• Assist in refining editorial guidelines, copyediting standards, and style rules used for model training
• Escalate ambiguous language cases to senior copyeditor and contribute to quality alignment discussions with editors and service provider
• Support dataset development by validating and cleaning training input and outputs
• Track and document recurring error patterns to inform model and workflow improvements
• Collaborate with editorial, production, and data teams on experiments to improve copyediting automation

Education Requirements:
The Ideal candidate will be a recent college graduate or pursing a Masters/ PHD in Journalism, English Secondary: Library and Information Science, Chemistry 

Required Qualifications:
• Currently pursuing a major in Journalism, English Secondary: Library and Information Science, Chemistry 

Pay Transparency: This role is based in our Washington, D.C. office. The following are the intended hourly rates for this part time/nonexempt role: Rising Junior-$24.00; Rising Senior-$25.00; Current Grad/PhD Student- $29.00.

Any actual offer of employment, reflecting the total compensation package and benefits, will be made in the sole discretion of ACS. ACS reserves the right to amend or modify its employment benefits and compensation structure at any time.

*This position will be primarily based in the Washington D.C. (or applicable) office. ACS employees work a hybrid work schedule, consisting of working onsite, two days per week. Schedule flexibility may be required for this role to support in-office activities. While always welcome to work in the office, employees may work the other three days of the week from a location of their choice.

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