Production Assistant, Expert

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About Springer Nature

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 Us

Research Square is a multidisciplinary preprint platform. At Research Square, we aim to provide the best editorial support to preprint authors. An important function of the preprint platform is to ensure that manuscripts are processed smoothly from submission to acceptance. To achieve this, we are seeking a Production Assistant, Expert to join our team and help us maintain high standards of quality and safety in our preprint submissions.

About the Role

The Production Assistant, Expert will be responsible for screening preprint manuscripts to identify and catch any problematic papers before they enter the production workflow. The Production Assistant, Expert will ensure that the manuscripts are within the scope of our publication guidelines and that there are no scientific or ethical concerns.

Role Responsibilities

• Manage Manuscript Flow: Handle the process of manuscripts from submission to acceptance through the preprint tracking system.
• Quality Checks: Perform required quality checks on manuscripts to ensure they meet preprint platform publication requirements.
• Safety Assessment: Ensure that there are no scientific or ethical concerns in the manuscripts.
• Support for Authors and Editors: Provide troubleshooting assistance with system issues and escalate to relevant teams as necessary.
• Documentation Management: Assist in maintaining process documentation and resource libraries.
• Editorial and Production Reporting: Assist with the preparation of editorial reports and other ad hoc tasks associated with the preprints workflow.
• Team Support: Provide cover for the team during periods of reduced capacity.
• Collaboration: collaborating and consulting with editorial team, product, engineering, and customer service to improve preprint platform processes.

Within 3 Months you will:

• Build mastery in the skills required for effective manuscript screening.
• Get familiar with our preprints scope, screening protocols, and full workflow.
• Get familiar with the journal/preprint publication research integrity landscape and new and existing challenges in the industry.
• Gain a comprehensive understanding of the team's dynamics and workflows through active involvement in team meetings.
• Contribute to community of practice meetings to ensure alignment and calibration with the team's best practices and standards.

By 3-6 months you will:

• Maintain mastery and build speed.
• Share your opinions and understanding of building resilient and supportable research integrity checking processes.
• Be a supportive member on the improvement and troubleshooting of the screening workflow.
• Have an understanding of the team's context within the publishing business they are working in.

By 6-12 months you will:

• Consistently demonstrate both speed and mastery in daily submission processing.
• Be able to properly understand and discuss editorial requirements with Stakeholders and Product Owners.
• Onboard new members in the team or help other teams on the onboarding process.
• Be able to discuss high level process issues and help create action plans.
• Proactively provide useful and actionable feedback to team members.
• Become an advocate for defining and implementing potential new workflow features.
• Coach junior members of the team.

About You

Experience, Skills & Qualifications:

• Education: Educated to degree level or equivalent experience.
• Experience with academic journal manuscript workflow.
•  Assessment of manuscript compliance with editorial policies.
• Fast-paced remote office environment is preferred.

Technical Skills:

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat and Google suites.
• Experience with Editorial Manager and Jira is a plus.

Communication:

• Good command of English.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills and a customer service ethos.

Organizational Skills:

• Ability to follow instructions and adhere to established procedures.
• Ability to work to a specified list of priorities with speed and accuracy.
• Capacity to organize and juggle a varied workload under pressure and to work quickly and efficiently without constant supervision.

Key Attributes:

• Punctuality and reliability.
• Attention to detail.
• Capacity to make thoughtful decisions and use initiative.
• A positive attitude in the workplace and a willingness to cooperate with colleagues.

Eligibility

In accordance with our internal career movement guidance, 12 months in current role is a requirement before applying to a new role

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.
Springer Nature was awarded Diversity Team of the Year at the 2022 British Diversity Awards. Find out more about our DEI work here: https://group.springernature.com/gp/group/taking-responsibility/diversity-equity-inclusion

If you have any access needs related to disability, neurodivergence or a chronic condition, please contact us so we can make all necessary accommodation.

For more information about career opportunities in Springer Nature please visit https://springernature.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/SpringerNatureCareers