Editorial Development Manager

Optica•Washington, DC

About The Position

The Editorial Development Manager oversees activities for a portfolio of Optica Publishing Group journals, providing input and data for strategies to improve the Journals’ reputation in the community, standing in the marketplace and ultimately their impact on Optica’s finances. The position supports the Senior Publisher and Publisher to work with the Editors in Chief to attract and retain authors, to ensure the Journals’ topic scopes evolve to include emerging research areas, and to maintain or improve key journal metrics. Other responsibilities include supporting the Optica Open preprint server.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of five years of experience in scientific publishing required.
Basic knowledge of scientific publishing and peer review is required.
Excellent interpersonal skills required to collaborate effectively with internal and external contacts at all levels; e.g. authors, editors, governance, Optica Publishing Senior Team and internal Optica staff in multiple departments.
Outstanding writing and oral communication skills.
Proven initiative and ability to manage multiple priorities in a professional and cooperative manner while successfully responding to changing demands.
Strong conceptual and problem-solving abilities required.
Proficiency using Microsoft Office applications is required.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with research publication in physics-related journals is preferred.
Experience in helping to successfully manage the expectations of editorial boards or other external clients desired.
Project management experience desired.
Strong public speaking ability and presentation skills desired.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain excellent working relationships with Editors in Chief, Deputy Editors and other editorial board members of the assigned journals.
Support strategies to improve the key performance metrics and reputation of each journal.
Prepare for and conduct monthly status calls to discuss journal performance and strategies with each Editor in Chief. Follow-through on action items.
Work with Senior Publisher, Publisher, and Editors in Chief to develop editorial plans and monitor progress made towards fulfilling the plans.
Help the Editors in Chief solicit special issues on engaging topics, prepare proposals for the Board of Editors and coordinate review of unsolicited proposals.
Coordinate the schedule of special issues with the editorial office to maintain time lines and prevent a backlog of feature papers.
Work with the Senior Publisher, Publisher, and Editors in Chief to identify new content features for the journals and develop implementation plans.
Support author recruitment and oversee peer review for submissions to Advances in Optics and Photonics, Optica Publishing Group’s journal of reviews and tutorials.
Track the performance statistics of editors and consult with appropriate staff or journal editors to resolve problems.
Prepare editor newsletters for each journal, according to the schedule for each journal.
Analyze trends in submissions, published papers and topic coverage and identify opportunities and/or weaknesses.
Maintain regular interaction with peer review managers and managing editors to keep abreast of journal operations.
Monitor the activity of select commercial and society publishing competitors to track new journal launches, special issues, editorial boards, time to publication, Impact Factors, etc.
Help identify top authors in the optics and photonics community as well as related communities to receive solicitations to publish in Optica Publishing Group Journals.
Compile the annual Journal Citation Reports statistics for Optica Publishing Group Journals and competitors.
Manage the preprint HighLighters program: recruit and onboard early career members to provide summaries of select preprints (Highlights); monitor their activity.
Prepare activity reports for the preprint server to track key performance metrics.
Prepare materials for Optica Open Advisory Board meetings.
Work with Senior Editorial staff to ensure the journal websites and the author/reviewer resource center web pages are kept up-to-date.
Prepare and update presentations on Optica Publishing Group activities used by editors and other volunteers in their travels.
Support the efforts of Editor in Chief search committees.