Global Editorial Strategy Assistant

Publications Division Overview:

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is the world’s largest scientific membership association, with a mission to “advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people”. ACS Publications is a Division of the ACS and has all the characteristics of a medium-large scientific and technical publishing organization. It is one of two Divisions charged with serving the dual function of generating a reliable annual surplus to support the Society’s programmatic activities, while also fulfilling a core goal of the Society in advancing knowledge in the field of chemistry and the chemical enterprise. The Division publishes 80+ high-quality peer-reviewed journals covering the breadth of chemistry and allied fields, as well as numerous other high-quality products and services of benefit to the global community.

Unit Overview:

The Journals Publishing Group consists of four main teams: Business Intelligence & Analytics, Global Editorial Operations, Global Production Operations, and Global Editorial Strategy. These teams collaborate to optimize the editorial direction and production of our journals, and to ensure that our authors and reviewers have a positive publishing experience. In support of that mission, the Global Editorial Strategy team focuses on the effective operations and strategic development of the suite of ACS Publication’s journals, both hybrid and open access titles. This team delivers new products on an annual and ongoing basis, based on an assessment of the existing portfolio relative to the research landscape. The Global Editorial Strategy team provides strategic guidance to ACS Editors-in-Chief to maximize the impact and success of the journals.

Position Overview:

The Global Editorial Strategy Assistant role is responsible for providing administrative support to the ACS Global Editorial Strategy team. The Global Editorial Strategy Assistant will support a team of around 30 ACS Managing Editors and Publishers who are responsible for the management of approximately 80 ACS journals which are edited by External Editors. The Global Editorial Strategy Assistant will deliver a first-class customer service experience to the ACS Global Editorial Strategy staff regarding daily administrative and promotional tasks related to ACS journals management.

Position Accountabilities:

1) Journal administrative support (70%)

• Arrange Editorial Board meetings, including polling the attendees, booking venues and/or scheduling online meetings.
• Maintain and update Editorial and Advisory Board lists and retrieve contact information of Editors and Advisory Board members by conducting online searches.
• Maintain and update ACS journal homepages and manage virtual issues.
• Retrieve and process data from various databases (ACS proprietary databases, Web of Science, SciFinder, Dimensions, etc.) and help prepare publishing and business intelligence reports or new journal launch proposals as directed by the ACS Managing Editors and Publishers.
• Collect data for journal Monitoring Reports and prepare monthly snapshot journal reports to External Editors.
• Support the administrative duties associated with the selection process of new Editors.
• Respond to general queries from ACS Managing Editors and Publishers and provide excellent customer service to a variety of collaborators at ACS or externally.
• Undertake other ad hoc reasonable duties and projects as requested by the ACS Managing Editors and Publishers as deemed appropriate.

2) Journal promotion and indexation support (30%)

• Work with ACS Managing Editors and Marketing Managers to coordinate the sponsorship of various ACS prizes awarded at conferences or other occasions, including the ACS Publications Journal Awards and Lectureships series.
• Support ACS Managing Editors and Marketing Managers with marketing and promotional activities and preparation of promotional materials.
• Help ACS Managing Editors and Marketing Managers collect journal information and content to promote and manage the ACS journals social media platforms.
• Help ACS Managing Editors and colleagues in Business Intelligence & Analytics and Global Editorial Operations ensure ACS journals are indexed or included in various repositories, databases and indexation services (i.e. Web of Science, DOAJ, PubMed Central, COPE, etc.).

Requirements:

• A bachelor’s degree in administration, communication, or a related discipline.
• Previous administration experience (ideally 3-5 years), preferably in Scientific, Technical and Medical (STM) publishing.
• Strong organization and time-management skills, together with the ability to work independently and meet tight deadlines while multi-tasking.
• Strong coordination and communication skills and proven ability to work effectively in support of a team.
• Excellent customer-service aptitudes and good problem-solving skills.
• Efficiency and competency in the use of Microsoft Office tools and social media platforms.
• Willingness and ability to learn how to use new software and technology platforms.

ACS International, Ltd.