PTJ is seeking 10+ members to serve as Editorial Board Members
POSITION DESCRIPTION
Agreement term is 2 or 3 years, upon mutual agreement with the editor-in-chief; with an option to renew, by agreement, for an additional 1- or 2-year term.
General position requirements:
· Substantial publication history
· History of externally funded research
· Documented expertise in identified content area(s) and/or research designs
· Substantial experience as manuscript reviewer (for PTJ or other journals)
· Experience as a member of an Editorial Board (for PTJ or other journals) a plus
· Excellent scholarly communication skills
· Interest in working with a scholarly team to help advance the rehabilitation professions
Specific areas of expertise:
The Editor-in-Chief seeks a wide variety of content expertise—from pelvic health, to musculoskeletal conditions, to psychosocial issues, to professional education, to geriatrics, to pediatrics, to measurement, to research methods (systematic review, clinical trial, qualitative, mixed methods).
Editorial Board Member responsibilities:
1) To follow ethics policies, confidentiality policies, and uniform quality standards as set forth in the most recent version of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors' Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, which can be found at www.icmje.org, and as set forth by the Editor in Chief in collaboration with the Editorial Board and as set forth by APTA.
2) To be responsible for the review of and publication decisions for the manuscripts assigned and as set forth below.
3) To be accountable for facilitating timely publication decisions, including monitoring the timeliness of manuscripts in review and working with Journal staff to actively find solutions for manuscripts that have absent or delayed reviews.
4) To be responsive to author appeals and questions, consulting with the Editor in Chief, Associate Editors, and Editorial Office as needed.
5) To inform the Editorial Office as soon in advance as possible if unavailable to perform Editorial Board Member duties for an extended period of time (>7 days). This will allow the Editorial Office to plan for an absence.
6) To make every effort to attend in-person, telephone, and web-based Editorial Board meetings. The expectation is to attend at least 50% of the scheduled meetings.
7) To serve as PTJ ambassadors at APTA conferences and other professional meetings:
a) identify potential authors at these events
b) urge potential authors to submit their papers to PTJ
8) To consider the Editor in Chief’s invitation to nominate a special issue topic; if the topic is accepted, the PTJ Editorial Board Member may be asked to serve as guest editor for that special series.
REVIEW AND DECISIONING OF MANUSCRIPTS
The number of manuscripts assigned to a PTJ Editorial Board Member in a given year will depend on the Editorial Board Member’s content area(s) and individual discussion with the Editor in Chief. Editorial Board Members will notify the Editorial Office if they believe that a manuscript has been incorrectly assigned to them.
The following list of responsibilities is reviewed and revised by the Editorial Board, Editor in Chief, and Managing Editor on an annual basis.
The Editorial Board Member’s specific responsibilities will include:
1. Disclose all potential conflicts of interest (COIs) related to manuscripts that may be assigned. Potential COIs are relationships or activities that readers could perceive to have influenced, or that give the appearance of potentially influencing, the Editorial Board Member’s disposition of the manuscript. Presence of a potential COI does not automatically disqualify an Editorial Board Member from the review.
2. Prescreen manuscripts to determine whether they are eligible for full review. Manuscripts are immediately rejected when they do not meet PTJ standards for impact or, for clinical trials, when they do not meet specified criteria.
3. If the Editorial Board Member prescreen team determines that a manuscript should receive full review, the Editorial Board Member assigned to the manuscript will suggest reviewers through the ScholarOne system, or the Editorial Office will select reviewers based on area of expertise, potential COI, and other factors.
4. Upon notification from the ScholarOne system that all reviews have been received, the Editorial Board Member reads the manuscript, considers the reviewers’ comments, and makes a determination of Accept, Accept With Revision, Major Rewrite, or Reject. An Associate Editor or the Editor in Chief gives final approval on publication decisions.
5. Editorial Board Members are responsible for monitoring manuscripts assigned to them and working with assigned reviewers and Journal staff to ensure that a timely decision on the manuscript may be made. This could include reaching out to reviewers to ensure they are still able to provide a review, working with Journal staff to assign an additional reviewer, or making a determination with at least one completed review.
6. The Editorial Board Member guides authors regarding the most critical matters to address in a revision and how to hold to the word count limit; rates the manuscript for importance and quality; identifies parts of the article that can be published as supplemental data only; recommends whether a podcast discussion on the article is warranted; and evaluates the quality of the reviewers’ comments, providing constructive feedback to reviewers. Target turnaround time for review, decision, and evaluation is 10 working days. PTJ Editorial Board Member contact information is included for the author in decision letters.
7. The Editorial Board Member reviews the revised manuscript to determine whether the authors have addressed the requested revisions. The Editorial Board Member also will decide if the manuscript should be sent back out for review, repeating the process already described. However, it is within the Editorial Board Member’s purview to make a decision on a revised manuscript without sending it back out for review.
Have questions? Email ptjourn@apta.org.