Early Career Journals Committee Member & Journals Committee Member
The Regional Studies Association seeks to appoint additional Journals Committee members. Applications are particularly sought from people with some understanding of the current academic journals’ publishing environment and from diverse geographical regions.
One position is allocated for an Early Career Researcher who must be within five years of completing their PhD (or equivalent) and one position is for a standard Journals Committee member.
The RSA Journals Committee manages, with the office team, the day-to-day affairs of the Association’s journals, excluding editorial matters. The Committee works under delegation to the RSA Board.
On all substantive issues the Committee forms recommendations to the RSA Board for decision.
Examples include:
- Direction of the journal/s
- Periodic review of the balance of coverage by the Association’s journals
- Performance criteria for journal/s
- Management of publication risk for the journals such as unattributed copying or redundant publication
- Management of crises on the journal such as actions against the journal, loss of key staff etc
- Editorial succession
- Journal finances
- Periodic review of performance against publishing contracts
- Sales and promotion
- Negotiation of Publisher contracts
- Market review for academic trends and publishing trends
- Review of competition
- Identification of new journal opportunities for the Association
The Journals Committee decides upon (among other things):
- Election of the editorial advisory board members of Association journals
- Day to day management issues for the RSA journals
- Project management for new start journals
- Publisher relationships
The Committee meets twice yearly usually by zoom but there might also be the occasional in-person meeting.
The term of office is normally three years with the possibility of a renewal of a further three years.
Click here to see the current committee members.
Application process
Please submit the following:
- A cover letter outlining their interest in the position and the Association. Please include any existing publishing and editorial experiences. Any knowledge of legal and ethical issues in scholarly publishing should be outlined.
- A full CV – this may be in summary form but should give enough information to demonstrate embeddedness in the field, e.g. information about networks, conferences attended, relevant publications, professional memberships, etc.
Applicants should not normally be Editors of a competitor journal but may hold editorial advisory posts or similar within journals in the field. Before submitting an application, applicants should ensure there is no potential for a conflict of interest, given the often-confidential nature of discussions and information at their meetings.
Applications should be sent to office@regionalstudies.org by no later than 17:00 BST on 14th September 2023.
The successful candidate will be expected to be an RSA member or to join the RSA as a member and to remain in membership throughout their committee membership. Current non-members may apply. Further details on RSA membership are available from the Association website at www.regionalstudies.org/about/memberships/.
Interested applicants with questions about the position or the process are invited to contact: Sally Hardy, RSA Chief Executive, sally.hardy@regionalstudies.org or by telephoning + 44 (0)1273 698017.
Feedback by a previous post holder:
I took a lot from being on the RSA’s Journals’ Committee. I got to know about the publishing process and how journals work behind the scenes. It’s been very good to hear directly from the publishers every few months about what is happening in the publishing landscape. And the cooperation with the RSA managing team has been really pleasant! I’d recommend this committee to anyone with an interest in scholarly communication and getting themselves ahead.