Building a strong journal team and editorial board is challenging. Successful journals develop tailored, regularly reviewed recruitment strategies aligned with their needsWhen starting, a small team is often appropriate, but recruitment should grow with publication volume. Under limited budgets, volunteers can be valuable. Editors can leverage their prestige and contacts to find volunteer researchers willing to contribute. In resource-limited settings, staff turnover can be disruptive, so some redundancy, like interim role coverage, should be considered during recruitment.

Recruitment is only the first step in journal staff. Providing relevant training, developing opportunities, and clear career advancement paths is essential (see section Training and staff development).

Key steps

We recommend these steps when recruiting:

1. Determine essential roles: Identify roles and responsibilities essential at your journal’s current development stage (see section Roles and responsibilities).
2. Define role requirements: Clearly outline skills, qualifications and experiences needed for smooth operations. Beyond traditional publishing experience or specific degrees, consider digital competencies including: data management, digital publishing platforms, social media engagement, and AI for scholarly publishing with its ethical and legal aspects, plus awareness of open science best practices.
3. Advertise positions: Use academic job boards, professional associations, journal websites, social media, and advertising in other journals. For new journals, ask editorial board members or guest editors for recommendations, or consider frequent authors or reviewers (from competing journals too). When using personal networks for recruitment, be aware of unconscious biases that can limit diversity.
4. Screen applications: Evaluate against job requirements, considering relevant experiences, qualifications, and demonstrated skills, especially for candidates who can promptly begin supporting the journal.
5. Conduct interviews: Interview promising candidates, in-person or remotely. Implement structured interview processes with standardized competency-focused questions to mitigate bias and ensure fair evaluation regardless of institutional affiliations or geographic locations.
6. Set Clear Expectations: Define expected contributions of editorial board members, such as suggesting articles or reviewing submissions, ensuring balanced workload distribution and transparency about responsibilities.
7. Onboarding new staff members: After agreeing on compensation, formalise the appointment, even for volunteers. New team members should promptly receive an orientation session on the journal, host organization, publisher, and work processes.

Compensation for journal staff

Industry professionals expect salary compensation. However, academics supporting journals alongside research or teaching often work without compensation due to the perception that journal work is part of academic service, compensated through increased disciplinary standing and prestige. This expectation is being increasingly challenged by academic communities’ demands for transparency.

Feasibility of unpaid work depends on individuals’ full-time occupation and salary, varying globally. Some journals may pay limited expenses (conference attendance, travel), while others offer formal payment. Many academics direct payment to departmental or research budgets to fund ongoing work or support other researchers.

The compensation discussion continues evolving without broadly accepted best practices. Journals should carefully discuss this internally before advertising positions, considering current and future funding.

Other considerations for inclusive recruitment

Journals should always adopt inclusive recruitment practices. EDI (equity, diversity, and inclusion) in editorial boards influences author diversity – journals with diverse editorial boards tend to publish papers from more diverse authors and featuring more diverse topics. Inclusive recruitment isn’t just ethical but directly impacts a journal’s content diversity and scholarly reach. Key aspects include gender, age (e.g., early-career researchers), nationality, culture, and proactively encouraging applicants from minorities, Indigenous groups, and people with disabilities.