Managing Editor

About JMIR Publications

JMIR Publications is a rapidly growing open access publisher of peer-reviewed STEM journals, with an emphasis on medicine, health, and technology titles. The ambitious vision of JMIR Publications is to lead the transformation to open science and to contribute to a world where people are empowered by health research and technology to make effective and informed decisions.

Come help us make a real difference in open science!

Job Summary:

JMIR Publications is seeking a full-time Managing Editor to join our editorial team. We are interested in applicants who are enthusiastic, outgoing, and service-focused Master’s level graduates (preferably from a health-related, library science, or publishing program). Previous experience working for a peer-reviewed journal is strongly preferred.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing editorial team as it supports a world-class community of editors-in-chief, editorial board members, reviewers, and authors. We are seeking someone with excellent administrative and organizational skills to coordinate communications and provide support to academic editors, authors, peer reviewers, and editorial staff.

Your Impact:

Reporting to the Editorial Operations Manager and working in close collaboration with the editorial team, the Managing Editor oversees the day-to-day operations of a selection of journals within JMIR’s portfolio of 30+ titles. This role works cross-functionally with internal teams, including Editorial, Copyediting, Production, Marketing, and Product & Technology, as well as externally with Editors-in-Chief and Editorial Board members to support the strategic growth and success of each journal.

The Managing Editor is also responsible for the timely development and publication of theme issues and may lead special projects, such as the launch of new journals.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Oversees the peer-review process

• Manages email communications with authors and peer-reviewers.
• Ensures the peer-reviews adhere to JMIR policy and guidelines.
• Monitors manuscripts to ensure a timely peer-review process.
• Monitors manuscript progress and ensures that authors adhere to JMIR guidelines and acceptance criteria.
• Manages author initiated withdrawals and other author concerns during the peer-review process.

Editor support Editorial Board management

• Monitors articles in their JMIR portfolio and works with editor to ensure timely decisions.
• Managing Editors facilitate author and Editor communication.
• Provide resources and support to Editors so they adhere to JMIR policies and guidelines.
• Manage the Editorial Board (Associate Editors, Advisors) and plan annual board meetings.

Editor onboarding and training

• Conduct virtual onboarding sessions with new Editors.
• Train Editors on JMIR policies and how to use the manuscript management system.

Journal strategy and key performance indicators

• Collaborate with the marketing department for promotional activities (i.e. call for papers and webinars).
• Work with the Editors and the marketing team to identify conferences for journal promotion.
• Monitor journal statistics, trends and key performance indicators (i.e. turnaround times).

Qualifications:

Education:

• Preferably a health, medicine, science, information technology, library/information science degree with demonstrated scientific experience (not journalism, media, or arts degrees); MSc or Masters in these fields are typical, although applications may also be considered when there is applicable experience below.

Experience:

• Excellent communication skills in (American) English, especially written communication.
• Experience in peer-reviewed scholarly (STM) publishing is a plus.
• Work for a peer-reviewed journal is strongly preferred.
• Work for higher-volume journal publications is preferred.

Technical Skills:

• Proficiency in using Microsoft Office (including MS Word and Excel), Google Suite, and Project Management tools (i.e. Asana).
• Familiarity with data collection software, academic databases and indexing databases.

Additional Desirable Skills:

• Familiarity with open access publishing, and open source platforms for…