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

The Open/Technology for Education, Society, and Scholarship Association (OTESSA) is now accepting applications for these three positions:

• Editor of Indigenous Content for the OTESSA Journal
• Indigenous Conference Proceedings Editor for OTESSA
• Indigenous Co-Chair for OTESSA

The OTESSA Journal publishes open-access articles in English and French, and we are open to expanding publishing to be inclusive of Indigenous languages under your leadership. We are a new journal in our third year and are applying for broader indexing. In 2025, 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 submissions with Indigenous scholarship is currently small relative to the total submissions, we hope the Indigenous editor can help change that.

We use the Open Journal System (OJS) to manage submissions and publish the journal. The Indigenous editor will oversee articles that focus on Indigenous scholarship. They will attend regular meetings with the journal’s editorial team and OTESSA’s Board of Directors, contributing to the ongoing decision-making processes related to 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 both French and English would be ideal, although we can translate work from one language to the other, if necessary, or seek one Indigenous scholarship editor for each of the English or French languages;
4. Able to interpret various methodological frameworks (Indigenous research methods, 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 Indigenous editor may need to propose and implement new policies or procedures with the support and collaboration of the English editors and assistants.
10. A letter of support from the faculty or department of the candidate’s

The tasks of the Indigenous editor consist of maintaining a database of reviewers and authors, screening papers on initial entry to the OJS system; choosing the reviewers to evaluate manuscripts and sending papers to reviewers; maintaining contact with reviewers who are late in sending their recommendations; making a decision based on the results; writing to authors with a decision; proposing changes and mentoring authors in the completion of the work; working in collaboration with the Review editor, assigning approved work to copyeditors, and completing the final publication step. The OTESSA Journal will be eligible to apply for scholarly aid funding in September 2024, and all editors of the Journal will be expected to contribute to that funding application.

The Indigenous 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.