The accreditation scheme is administered by
IPEd’s Accreditation Board.
Governance of accreditation
IPEd’s Accreditation Board (AB) administers the accreditation scheme. AB members are volunteers who must be either an Accredited Editor (AE) or a Distinguished Editor (DE). They are usually appointed as delegates by their IPEd branch but occasionally are skills-based appointments. The chair is appointed by the AB from among its members.
Information about the Accreditation Board is set out below under the following headings:
- IPEd Accreditation Board members
- IPEd Accreditation Board responsibilities
- IPEd Accreditation Board history
IPEd Accreditation Board
Chair, Queensland branch delegate
Charlotte Cottier AE, ab.chair@iped-editors.org
Charlotte specialises in copyediting for academics, research students and independent authors through her freelance editing business. She has a background in business and research administration and a Master of Arts in Editing and Publishing. Charlotte has been a member of IPEd’s Standing Committee on Academic Editing since its inception in 2017 and joined the Accreditation Board in 2021 because she believes in the value of accreditation for the editing profession. She loves dancing, reading, puzzling and patting her two rescue cats.
Aotearoa New Zealand branch delegate
Elizabeth Beattie AE, edanz.ab@iped-editors.org
Liz is one of 10 AEs in the ANZ branch. Her journalism and teaching experience led to a writing and editing career that has been mainly in New Zealand’s educational sector. She most recently worked for 11 years at Victoria University of Wellington. Liz is a huge fan of Ottolenghi’s recipe books and her Thermomix and, when not in the kitchen, will be found reading, sewing or gardening. She says that IPEd’s accreditation scheme plays an important role in upskilling editors and showing clients and the wider community the importance of editing.
New South Wales branch delegate
Dr Louise Merrington AE, ednsw.ab@iped-editors.org
Louise is a freelance editor and writer specialising in complex content and plain English for government, businesses, universities and non-profits. She sits on the Standards Australia Plain Language Working Group, promoting and localising the forthcoming international plain language standard. Diagnosed with autism in 2022, Louise is an advocate for greater awareness of neurodiversity in the editing profession and is the chair of the IPEd Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Working Party.
South Australia branch delegate
Amanda Webster AE, edsa.ab@iped-editors.org
Amanda is an academic editor with a penchant for editing research in psychology, social justice and the arts. Over the past several years, she’s developed a passion for inclusive language and accessibility, and is always looking to expand her knowledge in these areas. She also delivers life skills programs to autistic young people and has recently resumed a beloved sport, artistic roller skating.
Tasmania branch delegate
Nina Giblinwright AE, edtas.ab@iped-editors.org
Nina specialises in academic and government editing. She holds a Graduate Certificate of Editing and Publishing, a Bachelor of Laws and a Diploma of Environmental Science. During her three years working with Capstone Editing, she completed their Your Editing Career Launched course and worked on diverse texts, from business brochures to PhD theses. She currently runs a small freelance editing business and is the Editor, Operations Unit, at the Integrity Commission Tasmania.
Victoria branch delegate
Claire McGregor AE, edvic.ab@iped-editors.org
Claire has worked in publishing for over 30 years, initially in-house in the UK before migrating to Australia permanently in 2012. Claire runs her own business, Kookaburra Hill Publishing Services, and offers all aspects of editing as well as book design and typesetting. She loves to travel and read and recently published her first novel. Claire joined the Accreditation Board in 2024 and is keen to promote the benefits of being an Accredited Editor.
Western Australia branch delegate
Dr Catherine Macdonald AE, edwa.ab@iped-editors.org
Catherine completed her doctorate on social change among woman-headed households in Tanzania in 1996. For more than 30 years, she has been consulting in the community development field, mostly in Asia and Africa. Her main areas of editing are social impact assessment reports, doctoral dissertations and self-published memoirs. Catherine loves to travel, although she’s always sad to leave her beloved rescue dogs behind.
Skills-based member
Ted Briggs AE, edact.ab@iped-editors.org
Ted is an Honorary Life Member of IPEd and the 2021 recipient of the Janet Mackenzie Medal. He was joint coordinator of the IPEd Mentoring Program from its inception in 2015 until 2021. His editing experience has been in the government and corporate domains. Ted is passionate about choral singing and theatre and is a judge and the CEO for the Combined Area Theatre Awards.
IPEd Accreditation Board responsibilities
The AB is responsible for developing and administering IPEd’s accreditation exam, managing accreditation renewals and developing IPEd’s accreditation scheme.
Accreditation exam
The AB appoints an exam team to develop and administer the accreditation exam. Most of the team are volunteers. The exam team has 3 main sub-teams:
- A writing team of AEs and DEs develops the exam.
- A marking team of AEs and DEs assesses candidates’ papers.
- An administration team manages candidate registrations and invigilates the exam.
Everyone who has access to exam content must sign a confidentiality agreement.
Accreditation renewals
The AB administers the accreditation renewal application process for each cohort of AEs.
This work involves:
- reviewing the renewal requirements and guidelines
- managing renewal applications
- appointing assessors to assess each application. Assessors must be AEs or DEs, and are usually AB members.
Accreditation development
The AB continues to investigate options for advanced accreditation, which would recognise editors with superior skills, and specialist accreditation, which would recognise specialist editing skills and knowledge.
In 2019, the AB analysed the accreditation scheme. It presented its findings as a poster at the 2019 IPEd conference and in the IPEd Annual Report 2019.
In 2023, the AB conducted an anonymous survey of non-AE IPEd members to explore barriers to accreditation. It presented its findings in a report to the January 2024 meeting of the IPEd Board.
IPEd Accreditation Board history
In 2001, IPEd’s forerunner, the Council of Australian Societies of Editors, set up the Accreditation Working Group to research assessment schemes.
In 2005, IPEd established the AB to act on the Accreditation Working Group’s recommendations. The AB has been responsible for developing and implementing the accreditation scheme since then.
In 2016, the AB became an IPEd standing committee reporting to the IPEd Council. The IPEd Council became the IPEd Board in November 2018, following constitutional changes.
Accreditation exam history
The AB held the first accreditation exam in October 2008. Subsequent exams were held in 2009, 2011, 2012, and every 2 years since. The first 5 exams were written exams, on paper.
In 2011, the AB outlined options for an electronic exam in the discussion paper, Exam delivery options [DOC 28KB].
In 2016 and 2018, the exam was delivered on-screen in networked computer labs using Microsoft Word files containing macros, for all 3 parts. This format entailed creating 2 sets of exam files, one for Windows and one for Apple systems, that were specific to particular versions of Word. After investigating how to make the exam files platform-neutral, the AB changed the format for the 2020 exam to PDF forms for the LANGUAGE and KNOWLEDGE parts of the exam and ordinary Word files (i.e. no macros) for the MANUSCRIPT part. The exam has been delivered this way ever since.
In 2020, the AB also allowed candidates unable to attend an exam venue to sit the exam remotely. At the same time, the AB investigated and evaluated ways to fast-track bringing the accreditation exam fully online. In January 2021, the AB presented a detailed report of its findings and recommendations to the IPEd Board. Download a summary of the online exam development report [PDF 256KB].
Since the exam was introduced, more than 500 editors have become AEs, though some have since retired or have chosen not to renew their accreditation.
Distinguished Editors
In 2008, 28 editors were appointed to form the Assessors Forum, which was responsible for assessing candidates’ papers for the 2008 and 2009 exams. These editors, who were nominated by the societies of editors (the predecessors of IPEd branches), were professional editors who were:
- endorsed by their society
- unanimously approved by their society’s committee
- accomplished and respected by their peers
- ethical
- active supporters of editing standards.
Because they were ineligible to apply for accreditation, members of this group were granted the honorary rank of Distinguished Editor, or DE.