Philippa J. Benson

Philippa J. Benson received her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).  In her doctoral work, she studied the cognitive processes of reading, writing, and information design by both native and non-native speakers of English, with a focus on how adults create and revise scientific and technical texts. She has published extensively on topics related to scientific and technical writing. 

Dr. Benson is currently the Managing Editor of Science Advances, the online expansion of Science magazine, the first high impact open access publication from AAAS. She regularly travels internationally lecturing at top universities and research centers about effective technical communication and scientific publishing. Over the past 25 years, she has developed and taught a wide array of courses in science writing and technical communication at institutions including Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown University, University of Pittsburgh, the National Institutes of Health, and the United Nations. She also led PJB Consulting, a firm with diverse international clients involved in STM publishing including the PLOS suite of journals, the United Nations, and the American Society for Nutrition.  

In 2013, Dr. Benson and her colleague Dr. Sue Silver published What Editors Want: An Author’s Guide to Scientific Journal Publishing (U. Chicago Press). What Editors Want reviews what editors are looking for when considering new submissions and examines the publication process in a logical sequence to reveal the reasoning behind the many requirements that journals and their Editors have. The book discusses ethical issues and trends related to publishing technologies and intellectual property rights and includes sidebar essays by editors and managers of some of the world’s leading scientific publishers, including Science, PNAS, and PLoS.