Editorial Assistant

The position of editorial assistant includes the following responsibilities:

 (a) Receive and prepare manuscripts for review.
 (b) Mail manuscripts out to reviewers.
 (c) Track manuscripts with respect to target deadlines.
 (d) Send out reminders to the editor, editorial board, and reviewers.
 (e) Collect reviews.
 (f) Mail action letters.
 (g) Enter data about manuscripts and reviewers into the computerized data base.
 (h) Handle the mechanics of publication with the publisher.

Typically, the editorial assistant is an existing employee at the editor\'s institution, who takes on Journal matters for about 5 hours a week. Either the Journal pays for the employee to work overtime, or the Journal pays part of the employee\'s regular salary. Should 5 hours a week be insufficient, the amount can be adjusted through discussion with the journal subcommittee.

A central part of the editorial assistant\'s job is to help action editors and reviewers turn around manuscripts in a timely manner. Thus, the editorial assistant is responsible for reminding reviewers and action editors about pending target dates, for periodically sending out reminders once target dates have passed, and for notifying the editor when excessive time has elapsed since a target date.