Expression of Interest: French Journal Editor, Conference Proceedings Editor, and Co-Chair

The Open/Technology for Education, Society, and Scholarship Association (OTESSA) is seeking applications for the following three key roles:

• Editor of French content for the OTESSA Journal
• French Conference Proceedings Editor for OTESSA
• French Co-Chair for OTESSA

The OTESSA Journal publishes open-access articles in English and French. We are a new journal in our third year, applying for broader indexing. We have published two issues per year, with continued growth. In 2024, in addition to our two annual issues, we aim to publish our first spring issue and two new special issues. We anticipate five issues of the journal this year. Although the volume of French submissions is currently small relative to the total submissions, we hope the French editor can help change that.

We use the Open Journal System (OJS) to manage submissions and publish the journal. The French-language editor will be responsible for the French articles. They will attend periodic meetings of the journal’s editorial team and OTESSA’s Board of Directors and contribute to ongoing decision-making regarding the journal’s day-to-day management.

Yearly reports will be submitted to OTESSA, and applications for external funding will require management and presentation of submission and publication data.

Candidates should forward their CV along with a cover letter, which contains evidence that they meet the following requirements:

1. Previous editorial experience, or why they are well-matched and prepared for this editorial role;
2. Able to work with a group (collaboration with the English-language editor, copyeditors, etc.);
3. Communicates in French and English;
4. Able to interpret various methodological frameworks (qualitative, quantitative, mixed)
5. Values the diverse contributions of discourse, research, and practice papers
6. Familiarity or ability to learn and be comfortable with technology to use the OJS system to track papers and communicate with authors, reviewers, and other journal staff.
7. Detail-oriented and thorough in processes;
8. Availability to monitor the system at least weekly to process activity;
9. Given that this is a relatively new journal, the French editor may need to develop and replicate the processes of the English journal with the support of the English editors and assistants.
10. A letter of support from the faculty or department of the candidate’s

The responsibilities of the French editor include maintaining a database of reviewers and authors, screening papers upon initial entry to the OJS system, selecting the reviewers to assess manuscripts and sending papers to them, keeping in touch with reviewers who are late in submitting their recommendations, making a decision based on the results, communicating the decision to authors, suggesting changes and guiding authors in completing their work. The French editor also collaborates with the Review editor, assigns approved work to copyeditors, and oversees the final publication step. The OTESSA Journal will be eligible to apply for scholarly funding in September 2024, and all Journal editors will be expected to contribute to the funding application.

The French editor will be able to negotiate the terms of commitment for this role.

Those interested should submit their application to the OTESSA Journal Editors at journal@otessa.org.

Learn more about the #OTESSA25 conference co-chairs and apply by emailing conference@otessa.org.