Senior Manager, Research Integrity

CJK Group, Inc. • VA

71d

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Research Integrity is responsible for designing, implementing, and continuously advancing KGL’s global framework for research integrity—ensuring the highest standards of ethics, transparency, and accountability in scholarly publishing. This role serves as both operational leader and program architect, overseeing the protocols, systems, and investigative processes that support KGL’s editorial teams in safeguarding publication quality and trust. The Senior Manager will also play a key role in futureproofing KGL’s editorial operations by integrating new technologies, training programs, and governance models. Research integrity checks are performed by KGL Editorial Associates as part of routine submission and revision screening, with performance oversight by Managing Editors assigned to specific accounts. The Senior Manager provides centralized leadership across this distributed model—ensuring procedural consistency, coordinating escalations, and leading or supervising investigations of complex cases both pre- and post-publication. As the program scales, this position will establish and lead a dedicated Research Integrity team responsible for drafting and maintaining ethics policies and procedures, refining role definitions, advising account teams on implementation of integrity workflows, conducting investigations in collaboration with clients, societies, and publishers, and documenting investigations. Additionally, the team will serve as KGL’s subject matter experts on research integrity, both internally and externally.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• 10+ years of experience in STM editorial operations, peer review, publishing ethics, or research integrity.
• Record of developing and implementing integrity protocols, training programs, and investigative frameworks.
• Expertise in research integrity case handling, including image/data manipulation and papermill detection.
• Strong familiarity with COPE, ICMJE, WAME, and other international standards.
• Demonstrated ability to lead teams and manage cross-functional collaboration in a global environment.
• Proficiency with manuscript systems (e.g., Editorial Manager, ScholarOne).
• Exceptional communication, analytical, and writing skills with a strong sense of impartiality and discretion.
• Experience integrating technology solutions or analytics into editorial or compliance processes preferred.

Nice To Haves

• Advanced degree in science, publishing, ethics, or related discipline preferred.
• Working knowledge of integrity screening tools preferred (e.g., STM Integrity Hub, Papermill Alarm, DataSeer, Imagetwin).

Responsibilities

• Design and implement KGL’s comprehensive research integrity framework, integrating it into editorial operations across multiple journal accounts.
• Anticipate future growth and establish scalable infrastructure—including team design, data systems, and technology adoption—to support increasing submission volumes and complexity.
• Lead the drafting, review, and continuous improvement of ethical policies and standard operating procedures (SOPs), checklists, and decision trees guiding integrity review and escalation processes.
• Ensure all policies align with COPE, ICMJE, WAME, and emerging international best practices.
• Collaborate with internal leadership to set key performance metrics (KPIs) and reporting standards for integrity-related activities.
• Partner with Managing Editors to ensure that integrity screening by Editorial Associates is executed consistently and meets quality benchmarks.
• Provide consultative support to account teams as they integrate new or revised integrity workflows into both existing and new client portfolios.
• Create feedback mechanisms between account teams and the central Research Integrity function to refine protocols and identify efficiency opportunities.
• Coordinate with Learning & Development and Quality Assurance teams to embed updated procedures into training, onboarding, and audit frameworks.
• Collaborate with KGL Editorial leadership on pricing and budgeting for new work and renewals.
• Serve as the senior escalation point for complex or high-risk integrity issues, including plagiarism, data or image manipulation, duplicate submissions, authorship disputes, undeclared conflicts, and suspected papermill activity and inappropriate use of AI.
• Conduct or oversee impartial investigations, ensuring proper documentation, confidentiality, and balanced communication with clients and editorial boards.
• Develop and maintain an investigation tracking system, ensuring standardized reporting of outcomes and lessons learned.
• Synthesize findings and recommend procedural updates, risk mitigations, and staff training priorities based on investigation trends.
• Build and manage a specialized Research Integrity team as service demand increases.
• Define clear roles, workflows, and interfaces between integrity specialists, Managing Editors, and Editorial Associates.
• Train and mentor integrity staff in investigative techniques, case management, and ethics compliance.
• Cultivate a collaborative culture emphasizing rigor, fairness, and continuous learning.
• Oversee workload distribution, case assignment, and quality review across the team.
• Evaluate, pilot, and implement technologies supporting integrity detection and workflow management (e.g., plagiarism, image, and data-screening tools).
• Partner with internal analytics teams to collect and analyze metrics on research integrity activity and outcomes.
• Publish internal or external insights highlighting KGL’s leadership in promoting ethical publishing.
• Represent KGL in industry forums, conferences, and collaborative working groups on ethics and integrity in scholarly communication.

Benefits

• General office environment with extensive computer use.
• Ability to work across multiple time zones (US, UK, India).
• Occasional travel for client, internal, or industry meetings.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree
• Number of Employees: 1,001-5,000 employees