Job Description

Job title: Publishing Assistant (12-month fixed-term contract)

Salary: £28,500

Reports to: Head of Product Development

Application closing date: 18 May 2025
Please note we reserve the right to close this vacancy subject to a high volume of suitable applications.

About us

The British Ecological Society (BES) was the first ecology society to be established anywhere in the world.

We are now one of the biggest scientific societies for ecologists, with a membership of over 7,000 across 125 countries. We foster the study of ecology and support the ecology community at all stages of their careers through our journals, meetings, grants, and education and policy work. Our vision is for nature and people to thrive in a world inspired by ecology.

About you

We are seeking an enthusiastic and self-motivated individual to join our friendly publishing team at the British Ecological Society (BES) and support the team in the general running of the BES’ portfolio of ecology journals.

You’ll be looking to build a career in scientific publishing and be eager to learn from a team of internal colleagues and external academic editors. You’ll enjoy staying on top of a range of tasks and be great at working independently and as part of a busy team. You’ll have excellent attention to detail and be effective, friendly, and customer-oriented in your email communications.

The successful candidate will become part of a team seeking to excite and inspire our various audiences in ecology at a time when our science has never been more relevant for society.

About the role

Working across the BES journal portfolio, the Publishing Assistant will:

• Check in new submissions of scientific papers to ensure that manuscripts are complete and authors have adhered to journal policies before passing manuscripts on to Editors for content evaluation.
• In collaboration with the editorial team, monitor progress on manuscripts in the submission system to identify and help resolve potential bottlenecks in peer review.
• Assist in managing the journal inboxes, dealing with straightforward manuscript-related messages from authors, reviewers and external editors.
• Ensure that accurate records are maintained in the submission system on the processing of all manuscripts.
• Carry out post-acceptance checks on manuscripts and liaise with production team when requested, particularly during periods of annual leave for editorial office colleagues.
• Assist in regular performance statistics reporting across the journal portfolio.
• The post holder will also have some opportunity to learn about other aspects of editorial office management, including journal development and marketing and support promotion of articles via social media accounts and press releases.

Applicants must have the right to live and work in the UK. Successful applicants will need to provide evidence that they have the right to live and work in the UK. The BES is unable to provide visa sponsorship and unable to hire anyone living outside the UK.