Closing date: 12:00 UTC, Monday 9 November 2026
Full-time, at least 30 hours per week
Do you have the combination of editorial and leadership experience to help shape the future of trusted open access publishing? Can you lead a remote, distributed team through change, while ensuring that editorial standards remain rigorous, fair and globally relevant? Join DOAJ as our Head of Editorial and help lead the development of our editorial function.
About DOAJ
DOAJ is a global open scholarly infrastructure that indexes and promotes quality, peer-reviewed, open-access journals. We help researchers, libraries, and research funders identify trusted open access research.
DOAJ is a mission-driven, non-profit foundation registered in Denmark. We are a small, fully remote organisation with colleagues across Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and South America. Our team brings together publishers, librarians, and academics committed to making research more open and equitable.
About the role
DOAJ’s editorial function is central to our mission and quality assurance role. The Editorial Team assesses journals against DOAJ’s criteria and makes decisions about inclusion, considers appeals and complaints, and works to ensure that decisions are consistent, fair and equitable. It also develops and maintains DOAJ’s criteria and editorial policies, ensuring that they remain rigorous, relevant and responsive to developments in scholarly publishing. Within the wider Editorial Team, the Integrity & Ethics Team investigates concerns about questionable practices in journals and publishers. Together, this work supports the quality, integrity and trust that underpin the DOAJ index.
DOAJ is entering an important period of development in how we organise and deliver this work. We are increasing automation, changing our editorial workflows and looking for new ways to manage our growing and changing workload. The aim is to make our processes more efficient and sustainable while maintaining the quality, consistency and fairness of our decisions.
As Head of Editorial, you will play a central role in shaping this development. You will provide strategic direction for the editorial function, lead the team through changes in policy and practice, and work with colleagues to develop effective new approaches to workflow and decision-making. You will need to understand both the opportunities and risks of change, and be able to bring your team with you.
You will also lead the development of DOAJ’s criteria and policies, ensuring that they remain rigorous, relevant and globally appropriate. As a member of the Executive Team, you will contribute to wider strategic decisions about how DOAJ develops as an organisation and how we continue to deliver our mission sustainably.
The role is at least 30 hours per week and is fully remote.
The Head of Editorial has responsibilities in the following areas:
Editorial direction and development
You will set the strategic direction for DOAJ’s editorial work and ensure that it supports our wider strategy and values. You will lead the development of our criteria and policies, ensuring that they remain rigorous, relevant, equitable and supportive of bibliodiversity.
You will bring together evidence, specialist advice and community perspectives to inform editorial policy, and advise the Executive Team on significant developments relating to quality, publishing standards and research integrity.
Editorial team and leadership
You will provide direction and leadership to the Editorial Team and Editorial Management Group, supporting colleagues to deliver shared priorities, develop their expertise and engagement.
You will lead the team through changes in policy and processes, building a culture of transparency, openness, accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement. You will create an environment where people feel able to raise concerns, ask for support, challenge decisions and learn from mistakes.
Editorial quality and decisions
You will have overall responsibility for the quality and consistency of DOAJ’s editorial decisions. You will advise the Editorial Team on complex or contentious matters, oversee the handling of appeals and complaints against exclusion, and take ultimate responsibility for significant or contentious editorial decisions.
You will also identify recurring issues and emerging risks and use these to inform the development of DOAJ’s policies, criteria and processes.
Partnerships, standards and influence
You will build and maintain relationships with organisations and communities across scholarly publishing and research integrity, lead or contribute to strategic partnerships and collaborative initiatives, and represent DOAJ’s global view in academic publishing discussions.
You will work with partners and external experts to develop standards, frameworks and good practice in open access publishing, and help strengthen DOAJ’s role as a trusted voice on quality and standards. You will oversee DOAJ’s engagement with our Editorial Policy Advisory Group, ensuring that relevant expertise and community perspectives inform the development of our criteria.
About you
You are an editorial leader who can motivate people, build trust and lead a team through change. You are comfortable making difficult decisions and balancing consistency and rigour with an understanding of different publishing contexts around the world.
You are strategic but also practical, and enjoy working collaboratively in a small international organisation. You have a strong understanding of scholarly publishing, open access and the issues surrounding quality, standards and research integrity.
You are committed to openness, equity and bibliodiversity, and understand the importance of ensuring that standards work for a diverse global publishing community.
Essential requirements
- Significant professional experience in scholarly publishing, including some experience at managerial level in commercial publishing
- A broad understanding of the scholarly publishing landscape, including commercial, community-led, library publishing and other forms of no-fee open access publishing
- Proven leadership experience, including motivating and supporting people through change
- Experience developing and implementing policies, standards or quality processes
- Proven experience leading significant organisational, cultural or process change
- Strong understanding of current developments in scholarly publishing and open access
- Excellent judgement and decision-making skills, including the ability to handle complex or contentious issues
- Experience developing and maintaining relationships with a range of professional and organisational stakeholders
- Excellent written and spoken English communication skills
Desirable experience and knowledge
- Experience contributing to international standards, policy or good practice development
- Experience in research integrity, publishing ethics or addressing questionable publishing practices
- Experience working internationally and/or in a fully remote organisation
We offer
- The opportunity to contribute to a globally recognised open infrastructure organisation helping make research more open and equitable.
- A senior leadership role with influence over the development of DOAJ.
- A high degree of trust, autonomy and responsibility.
- Flexible remote working with colleagues worldwide.
- The opportunity to contribute to international discussions about quality, standards and good practice in open access publishing.
- A collaborative and supportive working environment where your judgement, experience and initiative are valued.
Compensation
The Managing Director will agree on the level of compensation upon appointment. The level of compensation depends on location and contract type.
Diversity
DOAJ is an adopting organisation of the C4DISC Joint Statement of Principles and strives to improve diversity and inclusion in scholarly communications. We are committed to ensuring these principles are reflected in our organisational structure and underpin our day-to-day operations.
Questions and application
If you have questions about the role, working for DOAJ, or the application process, please email Joanna Ball, Managing Director joanna@doaj.org
To apply, please send a cover letter and a copy of your resumé/CV to jobs@doaj.org by 12:00 UTC on Monday 9th of November 2026.
