Editorial Production - Three and a half years

Four years ago, whilst on maternity leave, I was made redundant. My strong administration background helped me land a job here as an Issue Administrator. I really loved the role, and it showed - inside six months, I was promoted to Journal Manager.

It’s an important position. We’re the main point of contact for everyone working on articles: editors, reviewers, authors, publishers, publishing editors, customer support, local supplier management - the list goes on. I could be doing any number of tasks, from mastercopying to issue compilation, checking cover proofs to initiating re-supplies, answering emails to dealing with supplier problems. I help authors get their work published and feel that I play a small part in shaping their careers.

Currently, I look after ten ‘Science and Technology’ and ‘Health Science’ journals, building relationships with the editors and improving turnaround times. They’re based all over the world: South Africa, United States, Canada, Germany, Italy and the UK. One journal has an editor in New Zealand and another in Australia. They might be in different time zones, but we don’t have a problem communicating. When they finally go to sleep I’ve got a few hours to sort out any queries before they wake up.

It can be stressful. I have strict deadlines to meet, so forward planning is essential. However, our Learning and Development department makes sure I’m prepared for anything. At the end of the day, seeing finalised issues sitting on my shelf is a truly satisfying feeling.

With Elsevier, I get to be a good mother as well as a good Journal Manager. I work part-time, Monday to Friday 9.30am to 2.30pm, so I can take my son to pre-school and pick him up again at the end of his day. As time’s gone on, Elsevier have supported me by allowing me to adapt my hours around Jack’s childcare. Parental leave is also available so instead of using all my holiday when he’s unwell, I always have some left for the school holidays.

Back to UK profiles