Are you a highly organized and detail-oriented professional with excellent analytical and problem-solving skills?

Are you passionate about research integrity and publishing ethics, and eager to make a positive impact?

About our Team

At STM Journals, we collaborate with researchers to facilitate the publication of their impactful scientific discoveries, with a focus on rigorous peer review, ethics, and reproducibility. In support of our portfolio of 2700+ hybrid and open access scientific journals, you will actively contribute to advancing science, improving health outcomes, and fostering equitable participation in publishing.

About the Role

Within Elsevier’s Science, Technology and Medical Journal (STMJ) publishing division, we are seeking to appoint an Expert in Publishing Ethics to strengthen our team and support our complex case programme, providing support and advice to Editors and Publishers in handling ethical allegations.

STM Journals publishes more than 2,800 peer-reviewed journals. Elsevier is committed to nurturing and upholding research integrity within our journals and within the wider research community. The role of the Expert in Publishing Ethics is to support this commitment by advising on best practices in handling ethical allegations in all fields of research, conducting investigations when allegations of unethical misconduct are raised, providing input to initiatives which aim to prevent or detect ethical issues, and training internal and external stakeholders on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and Elsevier best practices and policies. The role involves support to editors, while always respecting and upholding the independence of editors’ decision making.

We are seeking a collaborative and analytical colleague, who is meticulous in their fact-checking, has a strong sense of natural justice and has excellent communication skills. Applicants will ideally have a qualification in a STM discipline and at least two years of relevant experience, either in publishing or related organisations, or research integrity within academic institutes.

Responsibilities

1. Supporting ethics investigations

• Assessment of activities by authors, reviewers, editors, guest editors and others.

• Supporting editors in assessing allegations including plagiarism, duplication, authorship disputes, peer review manipulation, and figure manipulation/duplication.

• Providing editors with comments on potential corrections, editor notes, expressions of concern and retraction notices.

• Liaison with legal and communications experts, as appropriate.

• Managing cases involving multiple journals and networks of stakeholders.

• Communicating precisely and diplomatically with all stakeholders.

2. Policies and training

• Raising awareness and knowledge levels of ethical policies and procedures.

• Providing education to internal colleagues and to the scientific community, including presenting at editorial board meetings and author webinars.

• Suggesting additions or updates to ethical policies in response to new issues arising.

• Occasional travel to present at physical workshops/relevant conferences, when such travel is safe.

3. Project management

• Leading on complex case investigations including organising workload distribution among a support team.

• Keeping investigations to schedule, and ensuring author facing communications are handled in a timely manner.

• Preparation of reports for senior leaders and external stakeholders in collaboration with data analysts

• Prioritising work based on team needs.

• Acting as a subject matter expert to provide input for ethics-related projects and product development.

  4. Product expert

• Acting as a product expert for tools that support the detection of publishing ethics issues.

• Supporting the creation of training and ‘tips and tricks’ materials for editors and other users.

• Providing feedback to product managers regarding potential new features or improvements to existing features.

• Creating user accounts and provide training to users on best practice in using detection tools.

Requirements

• A minimum of two years' relevant experience

• Degree in an academic discipline

• Knowledge of peer-review and the publishing process, and COPE best practices

• Excellent communications skills

• Experience supporting editors or other senior academics

• Strong sense of mature judgement

• Strong analytical, organizational and prioritization skills

• Ability to work methodically, problem-solving and fact-checking

• Experience in working in a complex, matrix international environment

Work in a way that works for you

We promote a healthy work/life balance across the organisation. We offer an appealing working prospect for our people. With numerous wellbeing initiatives, shared parental leave, study assistance and sabbaticals, we will help you meet your immediate responsibilities and your long-term goals.

• Working flexible hours - flexing the times when you work in the day to help you fit everything in and work when you are the most productive

Working for you

We know that your wellbeing and happiness are key to a long and successful career. These are some of the benefits we are delighted to offer:

• Long-Service Award: Recognition for loyalty and dedication.

• Medical and Life Insurance: Coverage for Medical and life risk.

• Marriage and New Baby Gifts: Celebratory tokens for special life events.

• Festivals and Birthday Gifts: Spreading joy on occasions that matter.

• Annual Medical Check-up: Prioritizing employee well-being through regular health check-ups.

• Flexible Benefits via CIIC Platform: Personalized benefits accessible through a user-friendly platform.

• Paid Time Off: Annual Leave, Flex Family Care Leave, Birthday Leave, Marriage Leave, Compassionate Leave, Medical and Hospitalization Leave, Examination Leave Gazetted Public Holiday

• Family Care leave (Maternity/Paternity Leave and Adoption Leave)

About the Business

A global leader in information and analytics, we help researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. Building on our publishing heritage, we combine quality information and vast data sets with analytics to support visionary science and research, health education and interactive learning, as well as exceptional healthcare and clinical practice. At Elsevier, your work contributes to the world’s grand challenges and a more sustainable future. We harness innovative technologies to support science and healthcare to partner for a better world.

Elsevier is an equal opportunity employer: qualified applicants are considered for and treated during employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship status, disability status, protected veteran status, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. We are committed to providing a fair and accessible hiring process. If you have a disability or other need that requires accommodation or adjustment, please let us know by completing our Applicant Request Support Form: https://forms.office.com/r/eVgFxjLmAK , or please contact 1-855-833-5120.

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