The scholarly publishing landscape is undergoing rapid transformation driven by open science mandates, technological innovation, and evolving research practices. This has resulted in new roles and the evolution of traditional positions. Contemporary journal teams must balance conventional editorial excellence with expertise in areas as data management, the ethical use of artificial intelligence, accessibility, and digital preservation, deciding whether to cultivate these competencies internally or collaborate with external specialists. 

While every journal differs, a full editorial team may comprise an editor-in-chief, associate editors, journal managers, an editorial board, and occasional guest editors. In some journals, the editor-in-chief performs various roles, while others rely entirely on volunteer scholars. Due to limited staff, some technical activities (e.g. copyediting, typesetting and generating XMLs) may be entrusted to specialist service providers.

Bigger publishers also maintain an IT department responsible for checking on data integrity, providing journal data for indexing and checking on the the use of AI in writing of the submitted papers for all their journal titles.

Editor-in-Chief

The Editor-in-Chief oversees the entire journal and is responsible for all final decisions, content quality, and future direction. Their responsibilities include:

• Managing the day-to-day operations
• Deciding on topics, content, and contributors 
• Assigning clear roles and responsibilities to team members
• Managing and maintaining the editorial board contact
• Overseeing the efficiency of the peer-review process 
• Ensuring that content meets quality and ethical standards
• Ensuring that the content of contributions meets appropriate ethical requirements
• Verifying article originality 
• Resolving research integrity issues
• Generating promotional ideas to increase readership 
• Overseeing open science policies and data availability requirements
• Ensuring funder mandates compliance
• Leading digital transformation initiatives

Editors

Editors are recognized field experts who monitor research advances and maintain community connections. Their responsibilities include:

• Screening manuscripts against submission criteria
• Recommending peer reviewers and growing the peer reviewer database
• Coordinating the peer review process and ensuring timely publication
• Identifying integrity issues early
• Evaluating data availability statements
• Assessing research reproducibility and transparency
• Supporting journal’s policy implementation

Journals managers and managing editors

These technology-savvy individuals focus on author services and have strong communication skills. Responsibilities include:

• Sharing some of the tasks outlined above with the Editor-in-Chief
• Managing the staffing of the journal
• Coordinating communication within the journal’s departments
• Managing correspondence with authors and the journal team
• Coordinating editorial activities and tracking the progress of peer review
• Ensuring long-term archiving and preservation
• Demonstrating journal performance, indicators and agreed standards
• Making recommendations to improve journal performance
• Managing integrations with scholarly infrastructure (e.g. ORCID, Crossref, and others)
• Ensuring that the journal remains competitive and relevant by tracking publishing trends
• Coordinating actions with indexing services

Guest Editors

Guest Editors are experienced researchers or field experts whose responsibilities include:

• Encouraging authors contributions for special issues
• Overseeing special issue content alongside senior Editors
• Generating promotional ideas for special issues

Editorial Board

The editorial board is a core component of academic journals that  provide advice, assist in developing policies and strategy and play a role in the peer‐review process. Board members can also help promote and give visibility to the journal ( see Choosing Members for the Editorial Board)

Emerging roles

Scholarly journals are rapidly evolving, creating opportunities for new staff roles.

• Data Editor & Reproducibility Editor: Enhance open access by ensuring FAIR-aligned data curation, methodological transparency, and computational reproducibility, fostering trust and reuse in scientific publishing.
• Accessibility Advisor: Ensures accessibility compliance with standards (WCAG, JATS4R) across the journal’s website and article formats supporting inclusive and usable content. (see Accessibility Remediation).

Journals must determine whether to develop these roles and competencies internally or collaborate with external experts, considering limited resources and the potential hiring costs.