Valerie Matarese, Ph.D. is an independent editor based in north-eastern Italy. Born in New York, she trained in biomedical sciences at US universities and worked as a researcher in university settings and at multinational firms in the USA and in Italy. In 1997, she launched an independent activity offering editing, writing and information research, and has served publishers, university researchers and companies with services such as journal copyediting, author's editing, team research writing and related training. She is an advocate of good scientific writing and adherence to internationally accepted standards for quality reporting.