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Position Details

School of Education

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £29,647 to £31,460, with potential progression once in post to £35,388

Grade: 5

Part Time (15 hours per week)

Fixed Term contract up to December 2026

Closing date: 6th July 2025

This role is also open as an internal secondment opportunity which would need to be agreed by your current line manager.

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, andweare equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university.We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here todevelopthrough our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programmewhichprovides allprofessionalservices staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential.With almost 5,000professionalservices jobs in a wide-range of functionsin Edgbaston andin our campus inDubai, there are plenty of opportunities foryou to be able to develop yourcareer at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate.We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are,and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees andtothe success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer avarietyof flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working.In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 dayspaid holidaya year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site.On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops,places to eat and drink,our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Find out more about thebenefits of working for the Universityof Birmingham

Role Summary

The Editorial Assistant will undertake the day-to-day administration of the Educational Reviewjournal(https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cedr20/current). Duties include, but are not limited to, monitoring the journal’s email account, answering author queries, managing article submissions through the review process, organising book reviews, liaising with publishers, the production office and editorial board members, , organising meetings and events and other ad hoc administrative duties.The post-holder will work independently and on their own initiative to support the work of the wider editorial team,while providing regular updates to the Journal Manager. The post is 40% of full time and we are open to hybrid work requests.

Main Duties

• Receive submissions and oversee their progress through the review process, using ScholarOne Manuscripts.
• Use ScholarOne to diagnose/resolve problems on behalf of editors, authors and reviewers; extract data and compile reports; and liaise with the publisher to make improvements to the system.
• Manage the book review process by securing reviewers, procuring review copies, copy editing completed reviews, providing offprints to book publishers, and tracking progress in Microsoft Excel.
• Respond to emails from the journal’s email account, either by signposting or, in most cases, directly resolving queries independently.
• Communicate respectfully and patiently with authors and reviewers of different levels of seniority and from different cultural backgrounds, who may possess varied levels of language/communication skills or IT competence.
• Confidently communicate with high profile academics on own initiative.
• Build and maintain excellent relationships with National and International editorial board members, relevant University contacts and various Publisher departments (e.g. marketing, production).
• Organise biannual editorial board meetings to take place either in person or virtually. This requires arranging a venue and catering, preparing a meeting agenda, inviting attendees, preparing, presenting and answering questions on reports, minuting the meeting and processing travel expense claims.
• Liaise with authors, the publisher and the editorial team to organise the annual Article of the Year seminar and widely promote participation to a broad international audience.
• Monitor expenditure and ensure events remain within a designated budget.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

Essential

• Educated to A Level standard, or equivalent level 3 qualification such as a Level 3 NVQ, or level 3 national diploma or relevant work experience evidencing the skills and ability to undertake the role.
• Minimum of grade C in Mathematics and English at GCSE or equivalent.
• Administrative experience.
• Highly proficient IT skills, including MS Office. The post-holder should also be confident and able to quickly learn new IT skills and software packages as required.
• Understanding of the academic publishing market.
• Proven ability to plan and anticipate requirements, proactively planning own and others’ workloads to manage time effectively, prioritise and progress tasks, and work to deadlines.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to write for different audiences, to required deadlines, and with a high degree of grammatical accuracy.
• Evidence of copy-editing experience with a high level of attention to detail.
• Excellent interpersonal skills. The postholder must inspire confidence and command authority with a variety of people with differing skills sets and from different cultural backgrounds. They must provide excellent customer service at all times.
• A high degree of professionalism, tact, and diplomacy, and the ability to exercise discretion regarding the handling and management of sensitive information/issues.
• A high degree of initiative, personal judgement, resourcefulness, flexibility, and a self-motivating approach.
• Ability to work effectively in a large, complex organisation, and to develop a good understanding of how the University and higher education institutions work.
• Evidence of working independently and reliably, delivering results to deadlines without the need for supervision.
• Ability to solve day-to-day and more complex editorial problems on own initiative.
• Ability to identify which enquiries require editorial decision.
• A methodical approach; an aptitude for accuracy, numeracy and attention to detail.

Desirable

• Publishing/journals editorial experience highly desirable.
• Experience of working in Higher Education.
• Experience working with editorial systems such as ScholarOne Manuscripts and CATS Informa.
• Knowledge and interest in Education as a subject.

Planning and organising

• The post-holder will receive direction where necessary from the Journal Manager but will generally work independently. They will therefore decide on their own priorities and timetabling, and will also prioritise tasks for the Executive Editor.

Problem solving and decision making

• The post-holder will navigate University regulations, Publisher policies and journal practice to inform their decision-making.
• They will use their judgement to determine the best course of action and appropriate response to a wide variety of issues, including sensitive authorship matters, complex technical/copyright queries and occasional complaints. They will maintain high levels of confidentiality and publishing ethics.

Internal and external relationships

• The post-holder will foster excellent working relationships with members of the journal’s editorial team, as well as with publishing professionals and academics of varying seniority and diverse cultural backgrounds.
• They will recognise that their communications and decisions impact the reputation and standing of the journal, the University and the Publisher.

Informal enquiries to Gemma Banks, email: g.m.banks@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviourshere

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website .