Editorial Analyst

The American Chemical Society is the world’s largest scientific membership association and one of the top five scholarly publishers in the world. The Publications Division of the American Chemical Society provides to its members and the worldwide scientific community a comprehensive collection of high-quality information products and services for the practice and advancement of the chemical sciences. The Division publishes 75+ high-quality peer-reviewed journals that cover the breadth of chemistry and allied fields, as well as a weekly magazine, peer reviewed books and reference works (ACS Reagents, ACS Guide to Scholarly Communications).

Within the ACS Publications Division, the Global Editorial Operations team performs three main functions:

• Editorial Services, charged with overseeing the editorial operations for 800+ offices, developing and implementing policies and strategies to ensure that high quality peer review continues to be a cornerstone of ACS Publications, at scale,
• Product Development, charged with overseeing author and reviewer products, including ChemRxiv, ACS’s Author and Reviewer Labs, the ACS Publishing Center, revenue generating Supplementary Covers, and our suite of for-fee authoring services,
• Editorial Products, charged with developing products and services to support editorial stakeholders, including all editors within the ACS journals portfolio and partner journals.

Position Summary & Accountabilities

As a member of the Editorial Services team, the Editorial Analyst role is critical in supporting editorial offices and retaining quality editors, editorial assistants, authors, and reviewers.

This position works with IT, Editorial Development, Digital Transformation, Marketing, and Production business units, as well as other teams within Global Editorial Operations. The Editorial Analyst develops, documents, and communicates requirements for new processes and functionalities and serves as a liaison to editorial offices during requirements gathering, implementation, testing, deployment, and monitoring of the resulting functionality.  

The Editorial Analyst monitors the effectiveness and efficiency of editorial offices along with handling and appropriately communicating reports and confidential information. This position interacts directly with ACS editors and can be asked to represent Editorial Services at editorial board meetings.  This team member works closely with staff from other business units and with other editorial analysts.

This position reports to the Lead Editorial Analyst. Core job responsibilities include:

Support and enhance the strategic value of the ACS editorial offices.

• Assist in establishing, developing, and managing relationships with editors and editorial office staff.
• Monitor competitive practices, services, and technologies related to editorial offices and the peer review process.
• Contribute to the development of policies and guidelines related to peer review and Editorial Services.
• Facilitate and lead training, discussions, and initiatives for and among editors, editorial assistants and vendors on topics related to editorial operations.
• Facilitate and lead meetings of editorial office assistants related to journal office workflow and the peer review process.
• Serve as a central point of communication between the EIC office and vendor staff on issues related to Manuscript Administration services.

Working alone or with cross-functional teams, oversee the tasks and responsibilities associated with Editorial Services.

• Contribute to the effective opening, maintenance, and transitioning of editorial offices.
• Advise Management and/or relevant business units on/about performance issues at editorial offices.
• Lead and/or participate in the launch of new products /offices.
• Lead an/or participate in the rollout of new services used by existing editorial offices.
• Assist with the development of appropriate training materials and documentation for and lead and/or participate in the training of editorial assistants, editors, or vendors
• Ensure that journal process documentation is correct and up-to-date.
• Identify and encourage efficiencies within and among editorial offices, using data from the appropriate environment to support the identified change.
• Monitor requests from editorial offices, editors, and vendors, ensuring that requests are acknowledged in a timely manner and prioritized appropriately.
• Ensure that Editorial Services resources are used in an effective manner, ensuring that the strategic and operational objectives of the ACS Publications Division are met.
• Demonstrate knowledge of teams in Global Editorial Operations, Editorial Development, and other business units and ensure that internal and external customers are routed to the team with the appropriate expertise.

Working with sensitive and confidential information, serve as an effective, tactful, and strong communicator with editors and assistants, and provide appropriate problem assessment and resolution for editorial office and peer review issues.

• Utilize appropriate mechanisms and modalities for communication with editors and editorial offices.
• Represent the peer review process and editorial offices in discussions with other ACS business units.

Education, Experience and Technical Requirements

• BA/BS degree or equivalent combination of education, certifications, and experience in areas of related discipline. Minimum of 5 or more years of relevant experience.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, analytical, and organizational skills.
• Basic to intermediate Excel skills preferred.
• Experience working with many and varied Web-based applications.
• Advanced level experience with online peer review and submission systems required. Specific experience with Scholar One preferred.
• Knowledge of peer review processes and manuscript checks needed.
• Experience in scholarly publishing preferred.    
• Must show past success as an independent thinker and problem solver.

Position location: This position will be primarily based in the Washington D.C. (or applicable) office. ACS employees work a hybrid work schedule, consisting of working onsite, three days per week. ACS employees are in the office on Tuesday and Wednesday with the third in-office day scheduled in consultation with the manager. While always welcome to work in the office, employees may work the other two days of the week from a location of their choice. New employees are immediately eligible for this hybrid work arrangement. ACS offers relocation assistance, if applicable.

Travel is required, may include international.

ACS places a premium on employee growth and offers opportunities for training, continuing education, and industry networking opportunities.

ACS offers a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package, including a generous vacation plan, medical, dental, vision insurance plans, and employee savings and retirement plans.  Candidates for this position must be authorized to work in the United States and not require work authorization sponsorship by our company for this position now or in the future.  EEO/Minority/Female/Disabled/Veteran.