Thinking of joining our editorial team?
"I like knowing that my work as editor has an impact in the direction that the field is moving forward. I think that we need more qualified faculty who are willing to take on the role of editor."
—Editor in engineering
Editorial community
Elsevier’s editorial community includes nearly 100,000 researchers who manage and develop our journals. If you've received an invitation to join one of our editorial teams, joined one of our future editor events, or are interested to hear about editorial roles at Elsevier, this is the place for you!
Managing Director Laura Hassink explains how we serve the research community
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Managing Director Laura Hassink explains how we serve the research community
The editor role
As an editor for one of our journals you can make a true impact on your research field and provide a valuable service to your peers. Joining a journal’s editorial team is a commitment: you will need to invest time and effort to serve your professional community as an editor. The extent of your investment will very much depend on the particular position.
“It is an important and rewarding job. Keeps one informed, knowledgeable, visible in the community.”
— Editor in mathematics
The main roles we offer are:
Editor-in-Chief / Chief editor / editor: Is the head of the journal and ultimately responsible for its content and editorial processes. Supported by a wider team, the Editor-in-Chief assesses incoming submissions, makes decisions and manages the peer review process as well as promoting the journal and representing it at conferences and other events. Together with the publishing team at Elsevier, the Editor-in-Chief determines and implements the strategic direction of the journal, defining its scope, recommending new team members and soliciting content to ensure the journal grows and develops. Previous experience in another editorial role is highly recommended and may be required before taking on the responsibilities of an Editor-in-Chief.
Associate editor, Senior editor, Section editor: Depending on the size of a journal, the Editor-in-Chief might be assisted in their editorial duties by one or more additional editors. Whether they screen incoming submissions, oversee the peer review process for certain manuscripts, make decisions, or do all the above (and more) depends on the specifics of the journal in question and the structure of its editorial team. Establishing experience as an Editorial Board member or as a keen reviewer before embarking on one of these positions will help you get up to speed quickly.
Guest editors: Usually a temporary role responsible for inviting content and/or coordinating on a specific topic of great interest to the journal. Guest editors are mostly involved with special issues which bring together a number of contributors all writing on the same theme. Guest editorships are ideal positions to explore and learn what it’s like to be an editor and may lead to a more permanent role on the journal’s editorial team.
Editorial Board member: Editorial Board members support the Editor-in-Chief and other editors by reviewing manscripts, promoting the journal, advising on journal strategy and development, and generally supporting the journal wherever possible. Editorial Board member positions are a great starting point for gaining reviewing and publishing experience, and testing out your interest in editorial work.
Looking to make a permanent move to a full-time editorial role?
We also offer a number of in-house editorial positions at Elsevier – our Cell Press and The Lancet journals are managed by internal teams, and we employ managing editors to support the day-to-day running of journal portfolios. You may find all current openings and more information here.
Whatever your role, you’ll get lots back – a sneak preview into what’s new and exciting in your area, the opportunity to shape the direction of research, the chance to meet new people and expand your professional network, and much more.
How we support our editors
“Elsevier has a large staff of knowledgeable professionals including publisher and production manager to make the journal operate efficiently. Also, Elsevier has great technical capabilities that aid with operation of the journal.”
— Editor in pathology
Our editors are key partners in the publication process so we provide them with a comprehensive range of resources and support mechanisms. As well as complimentary access to ScienceDirect and Scopus, dedicated reporting and a bespoke training course, there are a number of tools and systems we have developed to serve our editors. These are detailed on our new editors page but some highlights are below.
Excellent support from the publishing team – we are here to help! We provide you with a large and experienced team to support you in your role. A dedicated Publisher will work closely with you to support the development of the journal, complementing your research and editorial expertise with publishing experience. A Journal Manager will be responsible for all submission system and production-related matters throughout the editorial process. Last but not least, our marketing, ethics, technology and legal teams are ready to step in whenever needed.
Leading publishing house – with over 140 years of experience curating and verifying scientific knowledge, we take pride in the quality of our journals and the service they provide to the research community. We love innovation and are constantly evolving alongside changes in the research landscape. We are keeping up by adjusting the way we work, updating our operational workflows and systems as needed and developing new features and solutions in response to feedback.
Trusted editorial system – all our journals are now hosted on Editorial Manager, a platform managing manuscripts from submissions to publication. EM is used by hundreds of publishing houses and serves 8,500+ journals worldwide. Your manuscripts are in good and efficient hands!
What you need to bring
“Being an editor in chief of a high-quality journal is a very challenging and rewarding academic activity. It helps one to follow closely the recent trends in academic research and better understand the research subjects of current interest on an global level.”
— Editor in aerospace & computing
The level of expertise required to join one of our journal’s editorial teams greatly varies by role, but for all our editorial roles you will need to demonstrate sufficient subject matter expertise to be able to confidently and expertly judge other researchers’ work – usually in form of a respectable publication record and a current position as a senior researcher.
Our Editors-in-Chief are established researchers with a broad interest in their field and are well connected and respected in their subject community. Previous editorial experience is helpful to get up to speed quickly. Associate, Senior, or Section Editors need sufficient subject expertise in the relevant research field and ideally a record of reviewing manuscripts. The requirements to join Editorial Boards differs from journal to journal depending on their precise role in the journal.
At Elsevier, we realize that inclusion and diversity are critical for enhancing innovation, productivity, and decision-making and we are determined to improve the diversity of our editorial teams. Whatever your background – we will be happy to hear from you.
Join our team!
“It is an extraordinary experience since we learn a lot from the work of our colleagues and [it] is also very helpful for the scientific community.”
— Editor in biology
Most of our editors are directly recruited by our publishing teams to ensure their expertise and knowledge matches the current needs of the journal. If you are interested in joining the editorial team of a particular journal, please get in touch via the journal's homepage.
Read more from our editors
You might be interested to read about the experiences of one or more of our editors who have been interviewed for our dedicated Editors' Update blog. As you will see, there is a wide range of backgrounds, personalities and cultures which make up our editorial teams: