Publishing Editor – Life Sciences

Morgan Healey Exclusive

Our client, a leading STM Publisher, requires a new Publishing Editor with a background in life sciences to form part of a new team in London.

If successful, you would be responsible for the success of a defined set of journals within life sciences. The primary goal of this role will be to develop a close working relationship with members of the academic editorial boards to further develop the journals within the portfolio. 

Key Responsibilities:
Portfolio Management:

  • Be the key point of contact for your Academic Editors and build a close working relationship with them
  • Prioritise journals for development and create as well as implement a strategy plan
  • Ensure journals are represented in relevant indexing services and prepare journals for acceptance by additional services
  • Develop knowledge of the research areas of your portfolio and use this knowledge to actively identify journal development opportunities
  • Work alongside your Academic Editors to increase journal visibility, submissions, and reputation within the field
  • Increase visibility and citations through commissioning and appropriate marketing

Special Issue Development: 

  • With the assistance of the Editorial Board, assess special issue proposals submitted to the journals within your portfolio
  • Give guidance to the lead guest editors to refine their call for papers
  • Support the lead guest editors in promoting their call for papers to prospective authors
  • Compile reports on the status of the special issues within your portfolio
  • Explore and implement methods to promote special issues once they are published

Skills & Experience:

  • A minimum of 1-2 years’ experience in the publishing industry
  • Degree in a relevant scientific discipline, ideally life sciences 
  • Knowledge of peer review and the publishing process
  • An interest in Open Access publishing
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Strong organisational skills, with attention to detail
  • A positive and proactive approach to problem-solving in daily tasks
  • Able to work cooperatively with colleagues at all levels
  • A high level of computer literacy
  • Experience of working in a start¬up and/or tech environment desirable

Development Editor (Books)

Our client, a leading Academic publisher requires a new Development Editor who will maximise the quality and sales potential of a list of key textbooks.

The Development Editor co-ordinates the writing, shaping and delivery of a set of textbooks and the digital resources that usually accompany them. The role involves working closely with internal colleagues to define clear development plans and with external authors and editors to make sure the content they produce is high quality, meets market needs and is delivered to deadlines and within budget.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Works closely with the Commissioning Editor to create development objectives and plans to ensure the textbook and any digital ancillaries meet market needs and beat competitors.
  • Communicates regularly with authors to share plans, agree schedules, check writing progress, provide feedback and to generally enthuse and steer them to deliver their manuscripts according to plan, contract word limits and deadlines.
  • Carries out market research with lecturers and students to understand their needs, get feedback on draft material, generate comments for use in marketing and create awareness of the book in the market before publication.
  • Feeds into Marketing and Sales activities by providing clear blurb copy, USPs, features, needs and benefits and by differentiating each book from other titles (our own and competitors’).
  • Works with the Digital Content Manager, Production Editor and Designer to ensure that the book is designed and produced to be attractive and accessible to readers and that print and digital pedagogy are well-integrated.
  • Supports the growth of development know-how within the wider editorial team by providing ad hoc advice to Editors and Assistants, sharing examples and running occasional training sessions.

Skills & Experience

  • A confident and influential communicator both in person and in writing
  • Well-organised with demonstrable experience of keeping complex projects on track
  • A problem-solver, who is able to identify challenges on the horizon and come up with innovative solutions.
  • A natural collaborator who actively seeks input from colleagues and shares information
  • Good understanding of the textbook publishing process
  • Experience of working in academic publishing is desirable.

Head of Content Development

Our client, a leading professional publisher based in London, requires a new Head of Content Development.

You will focus on driving delivery excellence across the Content Development team and tracked adherence to the editorial guidelines. This will be achieved by ensuring project management best practice, drafting and editorial expertise, strong stakeholder management and collaboration are core competencies of the team to successfully support the consensus-based standardisation development processes

Key Responsibilities:

  • Develop and manage a successful editorial project management and programme management centre of excellence
  • Create a high performing, empowered, lean culture within the Content Development team.
  • Build a team environment which encourages open feedback during the project / programme delivery process and drives informative and right-focused communication to internal and external stakeholders throughout.
  • End responsible for the high quality and timely delivery of the programmes and projects managed by the team. Working with the Content Development Delivery Managers, provide operational guidance and support, with a focused and structured approach to embedding the editorial governance policies and the standardisation process throughout the project lifecycle.
  • Partnering with the Services commercial team, report monthly the project revenue milestones achieved in-month and forecast the adherence to the planned project timeline and budget in a timely manner.
  • Build a scalable resource model that accommodates the peak and trough of the project-based workload, collaborate with the Content Delivery team to utilise copy editing and XML skills to build a robust response when required. Encourage flexibility to pilot and deliver more innovative standardisation outputs through the funded programmes.
  • Develop an induction process for new starters that allows them to get up-to-speed rapidly
  • Work collaboratively across the Content Solutions dept to identify efficiency and automation opportunities within workflows. Leverage the digital publishing capabilities of the Content Model XML-publishing platform to structure the standards documents to support the drafting process.
  • Create KPIs that drive successful project and programme delivery, represent data in a meaningful way and communicate to all stakeholders and to the Services Delivery Steering Group.
  • P/L responsibility for cost centre and manage optimally to achieve team objectives

Skills & Experience:

  • Solid experience of running an editorial function in a digital publishing environment
  • Familiar with online content tools
  • Experienced in programme or project management delivery
  • Experienced leading and managing a mid-sized team (20 people) Experienced managing and embedding change within teams
  • Has been responsible for team P/L
  • Has been responsible for delivering financial reporting around project budget and forecasting timelines and project spend
  • Has experience of operating with matrix reporting structures
  • Experienced mentor and/or coach

Editorial Development Manager, Europe

Our client, a leading STM Publisher, requires a new Editorial Development Manager based in Germany.

You will be the key representative for the company’s publishing activities in mainland Europe with a particular focus on strategic planning and developing and maintaining relationships with the European science and open access communities. 

Key Responsibilities: 

  • Responsible for developing, communicating and implementing our publishing strategy for UK and Europe
  • To support and inform the Open Access strategy
  • To continuously monitor and evaluate the requirements of the scientific, institutional and librarian communities, the STM and competitor landscapes and international funding bodies
  • To expand and develop the best authorship and readership for our journals and books in mainland Europe
  • To foster and develop the mainland European membership of Editorial and Advisory Boards
  • To support books commissioning activities in Europe
  • To work with Sales colleagues to identify potential sales leads
  • To develop and maintain an exceptionally influential network of contacts spanning the academic, industrial and political/policy sectors
  • To manage this network to increase the company's influence and impact

Skills & Experience:

  • Degree or PhD in science
  • Experience in Scientific, Technical & Medical publishing
  • Demonstrable leadership and management skills, ideally within a cross-functional team
  • Thorough understanding of European education and scientific research systems
  • Excellent communication, interpersonal and networking skills
  • Proven ability to work as part of a team
  • Good organisational and time-management skills are required together with the ability to work under pressure autonomously and to meet deadlines
  • Willingness to travel nationally and internationally
  • Contacts with the relevant communities

Acquisitions Editor – Computer Technologies & Tools

Our client, a leader in computer and technical publishing, requires a new Books Acquisitions Editor based in the UK.

You will ideally have 1-3 years' experience in a similar role identifying important technical topics and finding high-quality authors and instructors to create books, videos, online courses, and other training materials.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Identifying growing trends in technology.
  • Recruiting authors and instructors to create online learning products and books.
  • Mentoring potential authors in the preparation of proposals and plans.
  • Negotiation of contract terms, royalties and advance payments.
  • Day-to-day contact with other members of the team including content editors, marketing, and production.
  • Active participation in launch and marketing.
  • Managing issues concerning authors, content, and schedule.
  • Writing promotional copy.

Skills & Experience:

  • Ability to judge market of technology topics with a proven track record.
  • Experience developing successful online courses is a strong advantage.
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work effectively with a wide range of personalities in a diverse community. The clients Acquisitions Editor's must possess the ability to be charming one moment and demanding the next. Conflict resolution and/or mediation skills are a valuable asset.
  • Strong facilitator, especially in the arts of negotiation and persuasion.
  • Ability to negotiate and manage contractual arrangements.
  • Excellent organisational skills, attention to detail and the ability to prioritise challenging workloads with moderate supervision.
  • Knowledge of publishing processes, procedures, and techniques.
  • Knowledge of peer review principles and procedures.
  • Outstanding writing, language, and grammar skills.