Interim Managing Editor & Editor Transition Support — per month

Overview

The managing editor gave notice, and everything about how the journal runs is in her head and her inbox. Or the editor-in-chief is retiring in six months and nobody has agreed who follows or how. Small journals depend on one or two people, and when they leave, manuscripts stall, reviewers stop hearing back and the next issue slips. This service covers the vacant post while the journal recruits, captures the undocumented knowledge before it walks out the door, and supports the transition to the next editor. It is for journal owners, editorial boards, society councils and university presses facing a departure, planned or sudden.

What’s Included

• Interim managing editor cover: submission triage, reviewer invitations and reminders, author correspondence, decision processing and production handoff, for the months agreed
• Handover documentation: a written operating manual covering workflow, system access, policies, recurring deadlines, supplier contacts and the state of every manuscript in progress
• Succession plan: roles, terms of office, appointment procedure and a timeline agreed with the board or owner
• Editor-in-chief search support: role description, candidate criteria, outreach to the field, shortlisting support and onboarding of the appointed editor
• Status report to the owner or board at the start and end of the engagement

How It Works

1. We meet the departing editor (where possible) and the owner or board to understand the workload and the timeline.
2. Within the first two weeks we take over the queue, stabilize overdue items and begin the operating manual.
3. Cover continues month to month while the search runs; we support the search as agreed.
4. We onboard the incoming editor or managing editor using the manual and hand back the queue in a documented state.
5. Interim cover is priced monthly. Handover documentation, succession planning and search support are priced as a project.

What Stays With Your Editors

The editor-in-chief, or the board acting in that role during a vacancy, keeps final authority over reviewer selection, editorial assessment and acceptance. An interim managing editor runs the office, not the editorial judgment. In an editor-in-chief vacancy we work under whoever the board designates as acting editor, and we help the board make that designation if it has not.

Important Limitations

• We are not a recruitment agency. We support the search; the appointment is made by the owner or board under its own governance rules.
• Cover starts after access to the journal’s systems is granted. Delays in granting access delay the start.
• Where the departing editor is unavailable, the operating manual is reconstructed from records and will note what could not be confirmed.
• We do not take on legal, financial or employment responsibilities of the journal or its owner.

Common Questions

How quickly can cover begin? Typically within two weeks of a signed agreement and system access, sooner for journals already hosted with NeucitePress.

Can this become permanent? Yes. Journals that prefer not to rehire can move to a standing managing editor arrangement.

Do you work with journals on other platforms? Yes, on OJS, Editorial Manager, ScholarOne and email-based workflows, subject to access.

Request a proposal, or begin with the Journal Health Check.