Today we are pleased to announce an open call for researchers from Latin America and the Caribbean to apply to join the eLife Board of Reviewing Editors. Applications are welcome from active researchers working across the life, biomedical or health sciences. The role provides an opportunity to not only help deliver the transparent and constructive editorial process that eLife is known for, but also represent and support your research community as part of an international initiative looking to transform research communication.
We especially welcome applications from women and we are committed to shaping our editorial board to help accelerate progress toward gender equity in both research and peer review.
The responsibilities of the role are listed below, along with details about eligibility criteria and the application process. Applications will remain open until the extended deadline of Friday, May 20, 2022* and the application form is accessible via the link at the bottom of this page.
This open call has been designed in partnership with existing eLife editors and members of our Early-Career Advisory Group. The current call is limited to researchers based in Latin America and the Caribbean because we have identified that these regions have traditionally been underrepresented within our editorial board, and is planned as part of a larger set of actions to promote equity, diversity and inclusion in research and publishing. Our expectation is to build on this experience to hold open calls for editors in other regions or areas of research in the future.
The responsibilities of an eLife Reviewing Editor
eLife is a selective journal that publishes promising research in all areas of biology and medicine. eLife only peer reviews articles that are available as preprints, and the focus of our editorial process is to produce public reviews to be posted alongside those preprints.
The eLife Board of Reviewing Editors is composed of over 700 active researchers, and we place high priority on the direct involvement of its members in the detailed review of manuscripts. Our Reviewing Editors:
- Offer advice to Senior Editors to determine which submissions are reviewed in depth
- Oversee the review process for full submissions, soliciting independent reviews from external peer reviewers
- Adjudicate an online discussion with the reviewers to come to a coherent decision on the manuscript
- Oversee the production of an Evaluation Summary and Public Review for each manuscript reviewed
- Provide occasional promotional support to the journal and encourage submissions
- Help shape initiatives to change the future of scientific publishing
Eligibility
Applicants must:
- Be based in Latin America and the Caribbean (as defined by the UN Development Programme)
- Hold a PhD and/or MD, or an equivalent higher qualification (e.g. DrPH)
- Be an investigator conducting research in the life, biomedical or health sciences at a university, non-university research institute, or in industry
- Agree to abide by eLife's Code of Conduct
- Hold an ORCID ID with a public profile
- Have prior experience with peer review (this could include, but is not limited to, reviewing grants, preprints or journal articles, including as a co-reviewer or ghostreviewer)
- Be able to provide three representative research publications (these can include preprints or journal articles)
Application process
Candidates can apply using the application form linked below. A PDF copy of the form can be viewed here, to help with preparing an application. Candidates will be asked to:
- Articulate the reasons for their interest in the role and how they aim to contribute to eLife's mission as a Reviewing Editor (up to 300 words)
- Provide a summary of their previous or current editorial, peer review, or related work (up to 100 words)
- Summarise the scope of research they would be able to handle for eLife, including beyond their immediate areas of expertise (up to 100 words)
- Provide 4–8 keywords that would help a Senior Editor or author understand their expertise
- Describe how they would seek potential reviewers for manuscripts, including beyond their immediate networks, to support diversity in peer review (up to 300 words)
- Provide a summary of their major research contributions, including how the three representative research articles highlighted fit into such contributions (up to 300 words)
- Describe how they have demonstrated open-research practices in their work (optional, up to 100 words)
- Provide an Evaluation Summary (2–3 sentences) and a brief Public Review (up to 250 words) of an eLife paper or a preprint of their choice. The article does not necessarily have to be something candidates are excited about or that they would recommend for publication in eLife. However, it should be something that allows applicants to give a balanced appraisal of the work – including both strengths and weaknesses – in a way that would be useful for both the authors and potential readers of the work. Candidates should refer to eLife’s Reviewer Guide to help them prepare these materials.
We encourage applicants to familiarise themselves with eLife's Editorial Process and Reviewing Policies ahead of their application.
Judging process and criteria
eLife staff will screen the applications based on the eligibility criteria outlined above.
Eligible applications will then be reviewed by a committee formed of representatives of eLife editors (including one local editor from Latin America or the Caribbean) and members of our Early-Career Advisor Group. This initial review will be conducted anonymously. Efforts will be taken to ensure that reviewers are not assigned an application from a researcher based at their institution, and reviewers will also be asked to recuse themselves from assessing any application where they believe there may be a conflict of interest.
These reviewers will primarily judge the candidate's interest in joining eLife's Board of Reviewing Editors, their experience with editorial or peer-review work, their commitment and understanding of eLife's goals and practices, and their ability to articulate ideas and feedback in a clear way. This includes, but is not limited to, contextualising a manuscript and providing public reviews that are constructive and useful to both authors and readers.
A shortlist of named applicants will subsequently be judged by eLife's Senior and Deputy Editors to evaluate the candidates’ depth of scientific expertise to serve as an eLife Reviewing Editor, breadth and scope of their contributions to quality science in their subfield, and willingness to provide coverage to topics outside their primary expertise. We reserve the right to add additional assessment stages or recognise other dimensions of diversity to help differentiate between candidates who are presenting an otherwise very similar profile and receive similar scores in the process described above.
If at the end of the process we end up with a high number of successful candidates, eLife reserves the right to stagger the onboarding of editors into two cohorts. We recognize the essential role of our editors in everything we do so offer an annual stipend. These payments are governed by a formula that awards a service point for each review overseen, and half a point for involvement in the decision whether to send out for peer review. Reviewing Editors with 20+ points receive $1000, while Reviewing Editors with 40+ points receive $2500. Successful applicants will be asked to sign an agreement with eLife that will outline the terms of service and will be invited to an online group call with members of staff to brief them further on the expectations of the role and introduce them to eLife's workflow and peer-review management system.
Application deadlines and communications
The applications will be accepted until a new deadline of Friday, May 20, 2022*.
We reserve at least six weeks for the decision-making process once reviewing has begun. Once the decisions are made, all applicants will be duly notified by email with the result. A list of successful applicants will be announced later on the eLife website.
The application deadline has now passed, you can no longer apply via the form.
* Update: A first round of applications closed on Wednesday, April 20, 2022. A second round was opened to allow time for more applications to help increase the gender balance within the pool of applicants.
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