Manager for Academic Journal

The British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA) seeks to appoint a new manager for the Journal of Eastern African Studies (JEAS). The appointment will be made on a contract basis, to begin on or about 1 December 2025.  It is likely that the services required will involve an average of 12 hours work each week. The payment will be in the range of UK £12-14,000 annually, depending on experience and qualifications, paid in quarterly instalments. The contract will be for one year in the first instance, renewable on an annual basis, subject to agreement by both parties.  

The role is remote, and the administrative manager may be based almost anywhere; the appointee must undertake to meet the right-to-work regulations appropriate to their residence and to manage their own tax and insurance liabilities.

The post reports to the director of the BIEA, Dr Rachel Ibreck, through the senior academic editor of JEAS.

Responsibilities

The administrative manager will:

• Manage routine communication with Taylor and Francis, the company which publishes JEAS.
• Handle communication with authors who submit their work to JEAS for publication.
• Ensure JEAS has in place an efficient and effective management process, with appropriate documentation to allow for succession planning.
• Keep track of all submissions made to JEAS from the moment they are received, through the review process to the point of rejection or publication.
• Coordinate with the academic editors of JEAS over the allocation of submissions.
• Communicate with external reviewers to ensure that reviews are assigned and received in a timely way.
• Monitor the progress of submissions to ensure timely processing and responses to authors, and to ensure that the publication schedule for the journal is maintained.
• Maintain a properly filed record of correspondence with the publisher, editors and authors.
• Copy-edit accepted submissions to ensure that they are in line with the JEAS house-style, and communicate with authors and editors on copy-editing as necessary.
• Convene and keep minutes of regular meetings of editors.

Essential criteria

Applicants must demonstrate these criteria in their application.

• A postgraduate degree in a discipline of the humanities or social sciences.
• An excellent command of written English for academic purposes.
• Experience of managing written communication in a professional way.
• Experience in administering processes and keeping a record of these.
• Experience of working in a team, keeping to timetables and monitoring processes.
• An understanding of the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations and experience of implementing these.
• Experience of copy-editing.

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of one or more of the countries of eastern Africa (defined broadly).
• Experience of publishing in an English-language international academic journal.
• Previous management/administrative experience in academic journal publication.
• Previous experience of managing a team in an academic environment.
• Experience in the use of social media to promote academic work.

Application deadline: Thursday 4 September 2025.

For information on how to apply see the British Institute in Eastern Africa website.

Further details

The British Institute in Eastern Africa manages all the editorial arrangements for the Journal of Eastern African Studies (JEAS), which is published by Taylor and Francis. JEAS is the premier eastern African regional journal for publications in the humanities and social sciences.

The BIEA is committed to equal opportunity and welcomes applications from all suitably qualified candidates.

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