Managing Editor Jobs

Managing Editor of Public Health Reports- Health Communications Specialist (Expression of Interest) Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Secretary (OS), Office of the Surgeon General (remote available)

About the journal/position

The Office of the US Surgeon General (OSG) supports the mission of the US Surgeon General to provide Americans with the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce the risk of illness and injury. The Surgeon General also oversees the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps—a group of uniformed public health professionals working throughout the federal government to protect, promote, and advance the health of the nation.

Public Health Reports (PHR) is the official journal of the OSG and USPHS and has been published since 1878. Its mission is to facilitate the movement of science into public health policy and practice in order to positively affect the health and wellness of the American public.

PHR is published six times per year. In addition, one or more supplemental issues are produced each year. The journal is published in partnership with the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH). The journal’s technical publisher is SAGE, Inc. located in Thousand Oaks, CA.

The position of PHR Managing Editor (ME) is located in the HHS Headquarters, Washington, DC.

Responsibilities

The Managing Editor (ME) of PHR has a federal organizational title of Health Communications Specialist. The ME typically has an administrative and publishing background, and may have a professional background in English, writing, media, journalism, or similar subject. A scientific background, including resulting in a doctoral degree is also acceptable, and may have benefits, if combined with a communications background. This person oversees journal production and the processing of submissions to the journal from receipt through publication including the work of the Production Assistant, peer review managers (PRMs), and scientific editors and coordination with the publisher’s production team. The ME serves as the primary contact to journal contributors. This person is also responsible for overseeing the external peer review process and may serve as a PRM on several papers in which role he or she selects and invites potential reviewers and manages the receipt of comments and disseminates to the authors all intermediate decisions made by the PHR editors (final decisions are disseminated by EIC). Together with EIC, the ME is also responsible for scheduling accepted articles to future issues and works with the Science Editors, the publisher’s production team, and other partners to ensure that upcoming issues are on track for print and online publication. The ME is the primary point of contact for PHR supplements. He or she works directly with Guest Editors (GE) of supplements in production and coordinates the meetings of the Guest Editorial Boards established for these issues. He or she also develops connections with external partners to solicit new supplement submissions. An ME with a scientific background may also serve as an Associate Editor on supplement submissions, in which capacity he or she provides recommendations to EIC on the decisions on supplement articles (in addition to the GEs’s recommendations). It is advantageous if the person appointed as an ME is a certified Contract Officer Representative (COR) and can serve as such on PHR’s contracts. The ME collaborates with the EIC and the OSG/DSP director on the management of the PHR budget, mission fulfillment, and long-range planning. He or she tracks journal’s performance metrics, such as impact factor, Altmetrics, turnaround times, acceptance rates, etc. and makes recommendations on improving these. This person also makes recommendations on the journal processes to address the needs of PHR, its contributors, and its readership. Working with the PHR/OSG fellow, the ME also coordinates content promotion including developing promotional partners and generating and reviewing promotional content.

Specific responsibilities

• Maintains and distributes PHR Production Schedule.
• Meets weekly with Editor in Chief to discuss management/operation of PHR, upcoming deadlines and deliverables, as well as any contractor performance issues.
• Coordinates content promotion.
• Serves as a liaison between PHR and OSG.
• Serves as a PRM: tracks individual manuscripts, invites peer reviewers, and follows up as needed.
• Responds to author/reviewer manuscript status inquiries and due date extension requests.
• Participates on the monthly publisher production calls.
• Coordinates PHR Monthly Team meetings.
• Coordinates with the contractor lead scientific editor on post-acceptance editing of manuscripts scheduled to a particular issue.
• Works with EIC to finalize manuscripts scheduled to each issue.
• Serves as or coordinates with the Contract Officer Representative (COR) for PHR’s professional services contracts.
• Handles all aspects of supplemental issue production.
• Helps coordinate the Surgeon General’s Perspectives column.

We are currently soliciting interest prior to a USAjobs.gov job opportunity announcement.

***Please Note: This is an Expression of Interest. This is not an official job announcement. All applications must be submitted through USAjobs.gov for consideration.

Please follow the prompts to express interest in this position and/or for more information about this position.

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