Publisher, NPJs

time left to apply End Date: January 28, 2025 (11 days left to apply)

job requisition id JR101771

Job Title: Publisher NPJ’s (m/f/d)

Location(s): Heidelberg or Shanghai

Application deadline: 27th January 2025

Springer Nature opens the doors to discovery for researchers, educators, clinicians and other professionals. Every day, around the globe, our imprints, books, journals, platforms and technology solutions reach millions of people. For over 180 years our brands and imprints have been a trusted source of knowledge to these communities and today, more than ever, we see it as our responsibility to ensure that fundamental knowledge can be found, verified, understood and used by our communities – enabling them to improve outcomes, make progress, and benefit the generations that follow.

About the role

We are seeking a Publisher or Senior Publisher to manage a portfolio of proprietary and society open access journals published under the npj brand. The npjs are fully open-access Nature Portfolio academic journals that together span a wide range of research, from fundamental physics to clinical research to engineering. Each npj is targeted to a specific scientific community and is launched and run in collaboration with preeminent scientists. Reporting to an Executive Publisher you will be responsible for the management, strategic development and success of the individual journals, liaising with internal staff, external journal editors, and the scientific community.

Role responsibilities:

1. Develop journals to deliver a best-in-class author experience and foster maximum engagement from the Societies, Editors-in-Chief and Editorial Board Members (EBMs) on whom we rely.
2. Drive the growth and development of a group of open access journals as part of a strategically defined overall portfolio within the Journals group.
3. Work independently in line with company and portfolio objectives, standards and expectations.
4. Proactively identify and respond to market/discipline trends and opportunities.
5. Manage the complexities of the relationships with partner societies, including contract negotiations.
6. Develop strong working relationships with colleagues in production, IT and other departments to ensure that any problems encountered with your journal, and particularly by authors, editors and peer reviewers, can be swiftly and effectively resolved.
7. Understand and manage the annual targets for journal submission, publication and transfer volumes as well as target turnaround times.
8. Ensure that all KPIs are regularly monitored, reported and met, and that action is taken as needed.
9. Manage annual Journal Development/Improvement Plans and oversee their implementation and successful conclusion.
10. Resolve pre- and post-publication issues raised by staff, Editorial Board Members (EBMs) and readers (e.g. authorship, scope, ethics and consent, misconduct, policies).
11. Attend external meetings (in-person or virtual) to build close working relationships with external EiCs, EBMs, society partners, and the wider research community.
12. Understand the trends and changes in the communities you serve to ensure that Springer Nature can respond appropriately.
13. Develop and maintain relationships with a network of researchers and be recognized as the publishing expert by own network in the scientific community.
14. Be aware of changes within the research community and publishing industry, and translate these into proposals for successful (new) products and services.
15. Take part in cross-departmental projects and/or company-wide task forces and working groups.
16. Review new journal and commercial opportunities in consultation with the Senior Management and contribute to journal proposals.
17. Represent the team in projects with Production, Sales, Marketing, Finance and other Editorial colleagues.
18. Mentor junior team members.

Experience, skills and qualifications:

1. Educated to degree level or equivalent, preferably in a relevant field of study.
2. Previous experience in academic publishing.
3. Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
4. IT systems-literate, with a sharp eye for detail.
5. Positive and proactive approach to problem solving, taking ownership to drive and complete tasks.
6. Ability to work cooperatively with colleagues at all levels and as part of a team.
7. Excellent communication and influencing skills.
8. Ability to work on your own initiative and independently within a global (virtual) team environment.
9. Experience of developing and maintaining productive and friendly relations/partnerships with academic and industry-based researchers.
10. Strong time management and organisational skills; including proven ability to take ownership to drive and complete tasks, to consistently meet deadlines, and to adapt quickly to change.
11. Demonstrate diplomacy and assertiveness.
12. Be resourceful and proactive in dealing with problems and queries.
13. Active, supportive team player.
14. Ability to travel on a frequent basis.

At Springer Nature, we value the diversity of our teams and work to build an inclusive culture, where people are treated fairly and can bring their differences to work and thrive. We empower our colleagues and value their diverse perspectives as we strive to attract, nurture and develop the very best talent.