From the Accreditation Board
Editors who have gained accreditation by passing IPEd’s accreditation exam are required to demonstrate their continuing professional development and commitment to the editing profession by renewing their accreditation every 5 years. This assures clients and employers that accredited editors (AEs) have maintained the requisite level of skills and knowledge as outlined in the IPEd Standards for editing practice.
This year’s accreditation renewal round is now closed, and by the time you read this, the 95 AEs who submitted applications will know the outcome.
It was a bumper year for renewals, with two cohorts eligible to apply: the 2008 cohort, who sat the very first exam when it was still on paper and were renewing their accreditation for the third time (66 AEs remaining after previous renewal rounds; 55 renewed this round); and the 2018 cohort, who were completing their first 5-year renewal (50 AEs who passed the 2018 exam; 39 renewed this round). We also received one application from an AE in the 2012 cohort who had not renewed when it was due last year.
The 94 applications received from an eligible pool of 116 AEs represents a renewal rate of just over 80%, which is higher than the average renewal rate across all renewal rounds since the first in 2013. Most AEs who choose not to renew in each round are retiring, changing roles or scaling down their involvement in the editing profession.
All IPEd branches were represented among the renewal applicants. The highest number were from Editors NSW (31), followed by Editors Victoria (23), then Queensland (14), South Australia (9), Western Australia (8), Tasmania (3) and Aotearoa New Zealand (2) (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: IPEd branch or affiliate organisation membership (n = 95)
There were also 13 applications from members of the Canberra Society of Editors (many of whom are also members of Editors NSW) and 7 applications from members of other affiliate organisations, such as Editors Canada and the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading in the UK (see Figure 2).
Figure 2: Affiliate organisation membership (n = 20)
Assessing the applications is a rewarding activity for members of the Accreditation Board (AB). We see the enormous variety of projects AEs are working on: books of all types, reports, theses, articles, websites, educational materials and more. We see AEs’ commitment to staying up to date by attending or presenting at PD events, workshops and conferences and reading relevant literature; their nurturing of other editors through mentoring; and their contributions to the profession through volunteer work for editing organisations such as IPEd.
The AB congratulates all the renewing AEs on their commitment to their work and the editing profession. And to the 2009 and 2014 cohorts – remember that it’s your turn again next year!
More information about renewal requirements – including the membership requirement introduced in 2021 – is available on the Renewal of Accreditation page of the IPEd website.