Human Kinetics is headquartered in Champaign, IL. This position is eligible for on-site or remote work. Remote workers may not reside in CA, NY, or the city of Chicago.
Human Kinetics is committed to building a more diverse workforce. We welcome BIPOC candidates and others who identify with underrepresented groups to apply.
Manages the overall success of 2–4 assigned journals. Supports and guides the Editors and Editorial Boards. Responsible for publication of articles within assigned journals from start to finish within the necessary timeline to ensure journal articles and issues are published in a timely and accurate fashion. Works with the journal Editor to set the issue TOC and then handles the necessary proofreading tasks to see the issue to completion.
Manages the effective functioning of peer review in the submission content management system of an assigned journal portfolio by promptly, accurately, and diplomatically processing all systemic aspects of peer review. The JME supports and assists the Journals Editorial Assistant II (JEAII), Editors, editorial boards, authors, and reviewers while they work through peer review of submitted articles. The JME is responsible for ensuring prompt delivery of accepted articles to the production team after the peer review process has concluded.
Acts as a front-facing representative of the division by engaging directly with customers, journal board members, vendors, and production partners and ensuring professional customer service/collaboration to all of these parties.
Essential Functions
Establish and maintain professional and responsive relationships with all authors, editors, reviewers, editorial boards, associated organizations, production partners, subscribers, and in-house HK staff.
Support the Editor of each assigned journal, as the primary contact, in strategically managing the title. Managing the title includes but is not limited to determining the developing and organizing special issues; making recommendations for changes to the structure of the editorial board; identifying marketing opportunities for issues and individual articles; and assisting with the journal's social media presence.
Support the editorial boards and their initiatives. Support includes but is not limited to preparing key performance information and annual reports for board meetings; coordinating promotion of selected content; coordinating publication of supplements or special issues; and maintaining regular communication with Editors and board members to ensure needs are met.
Liaise with journals' partnering societies and organizations to elevate these professional relationships and raise the visibility of the journal to these groups.
Continuously review online article and issue presentation of the titles within the assigned journal portfolio, identifying potential areas of improvement or new content creation and discussing them with the Journals Digital Publishing Manager.
Efficiently manage the workflow of ahead-of-print articles and regularly scheduled journal issues to ensure their timely and accurate publication, following established timelines and standards.
Ensure journal content meets editorial standards and expectations by monitoring the content through the production process on time. Monitoring the content through the production process includes, but is not limited to updating tracking spreadsheets, confirming the table of contents, proofreading content, and providing accurate documentation for issue completion.
Accurately perform pre-press duties, including updating journal covers; compiling information about special issues; and preparing and implementing updates and changes to front and back matter, masthead pages, and ads.
Create and maintain Need-to-Know documentation for each assigned journal.
Support Editors of assigned HK journals by ensuring timely and efficient editorial office check-ins, resolving author submission errors and ensuring adherence to author submission guidelines, within 1–2 business days after the manuscript has entered the check-in queue.
Ensure timely and efficient transfer of accepted files (i.e., article exports) of assigned HK journals to the production vendor within 1-2 business days after article acceptance.
Assist editors, authors, reviewers, and HK managing editors with all logistical aspects of peer review within the CMS for assigned HK journals. This includes, but is not limited to, editing email templates, updating role assignments, modifying the deployment schedules of outgoing automated emails, and so on.
Provide ongoing support to external and internal team members and customers when they experience technical difficulties with the journal submission CMS.
Contribute to HK's profitability by working productively and ensuring project budgets and schedules are met.
Secondary Functions
Assist with new business development, when appropriate.
Support the Journals Digital Publishing Manager with QA reviews of digital issues.
Evaluate JME operations within the production portal and identify areas for improvement. Collaborate with Division Director to initiate new processes where needed to improve those production operations.
Job Qualifications
Education: Bachelor's degree required.
Required Experience: 2-3 years of project management experience with other job-related experience that shows skilled attention to detail and competence applying rules of editing and grammar.
Preferred Experience: 4 years of project management and at least 1 year of direct editorial experience.
Required Competencies:
Attention to detail
Computer literacy
Customer focus
Interpersonal understanding
Negotiating
Oral communication
Organizational awareness
Planning and organizing
Self-confidence
Written communication
Integrity
Resourcefulness
Effort
Respect
Teamwork
Stewardship
Preferred Competencies:
Accountability
Adaptability
Continuous learning
Decision making
Initiative
Persuasiveness
Results orientation
Strategic thinking
Stress tolerance
Job Demands
Office Equipment: Frequent computer use. Occasional phone use and rare use of a copier.
Mental Demands: Frequent problem-solving, decision-making, organization, and reading/writing skills. Occasional data-interpretation and rare supervisory skills required.
Other Duties: Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice.