Meet the DOAJ Team: Managing Editor and Volunteer Coordinator Iemima Ploscariu

You might have wondered how many people are behind the scenes at DOAJ and what they do. This blog post series will offer our community an opportunity to meet several of our team members and learn more about their roles and responsibilities. In this blog post, we will meet Iemima Ploscariu, Managing Editor and Volunteer Coordinator.

Hello Iemima! Tell us a little about your role and your background!

I started volunteering at DOAJ back in 2015 as an Editor of the Romanian group, and in 2020 I started working as a Managing Editor. As Managing Editor for the Slavic group and the Polish 1 group I am responsible for lots of different languages, and so depend on the expertise and language skills of volunteers from Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Hungary to name a few. I was born in Romania, but grew up in California. I have a Masters in Central Eastern European Studies and Comparative History and did my PhD in History at Dublin City University in Ireland, where I met my husband who is Portuguese. He didn’t want to live in rainy Ireland, so we moved to Spain! 

The Volunteer Coordinator is a relatively new role. I took over the role from Leena Shah, who did an excellent job setting up the training systems and processes. As a Volunteer Coordinator, I keep in contact with the volunteers, work with Kat on the internal newsletter and get volunteers the information they need to help them feel connected and keep them up to date regarding any changes that might come up to our criteria. I also train new volunteers, but that is a responsibility of all Managing Editors – we’re all responsible for our own groups and training within those groups. The groups are divided by region/language and there are between three and ten volunteers in each group.

What attracted you to the role as a volunteer when you joined in 2015?

The possibility of working with other academics and academic journals. I wasn’t too familiar with Open Access at the time, but as I started working in the field I realised just how important it is. Especially for students and for scholars who are not linked to a university or institution where they have access to scholarly works. For me, when I was not a part of a university, it was very difficult to get access to research. So, this motivated me to continue working at DOAJ. 

What is a ‘Volunteer’ at DOAJ and how many volunteers does DOAJ have?

DOAJ has about 100 volunteers. Volunteers are either Editors or Associate Editors. These individuals help us review applications from journals. Once journals pass triage, they will be assigned by the Managing Editor to a volunteer who will go through the application and make sure everything is correct. If they see something suspicious, they will flag it for us. We really depend on volunteers to help us with the large amount of applications that we receive each month. 

You’ve mentioned two types of volunteers; Editor and Associate Editor, what is the difference between the two?

Not all groups have Editors, and the Editors manage the Associate Editors. This means that in some groups it’s the Editors that assign applications to Associate Editors, instead of the Managing Editor, and then the notes will come through to the Editor who will mark the application as ready if they think it’s ready to be rejected or accepted. Then it’s up to the Managing Editor to review the notes and make a decision. 

We have 12 Managing Editors and 11 Volunteer Editors. 

How does one apply to become a Volunteer Editor/Associate Editor?

Usually we send out a call when we need volunteers. This can happen if a certain group has a lot of volunteers that leave, or if we see an increased need for volunteers in a region or language group. The applications will then be reviewed by the Managing Editors of the groups that have received applications. 

If someone is really interested in volunteering, they can always contact a member of the DOAJ team, who will forward the information to the appropriate Managing Editor. It’s unlikely that there is a need for more volunteers unless we have a call out, but we do take on volunteers sometimes outside calls as well. 

What kind of background do volunteer Editors or Associate Editors have?

In the beginning, when DOAJ first started recruiting volunteers, they were mostly librarians. Now, our volunteers consist mostly of scholars and professors who are researching as well as librarians. 

What does an average week look like for you?

Usually my week consists of roughly 60% editorial work (reviewing applications), about 20% work as the Volunteer Coordinator and about 20% on investigative work with the Quality team. However, I’ve recently found that I do a lot more hours of investigative work! So now it’s probably about 50% work reviewing applications that have gone through to the Quality team. It is mostly reviewing applications and looking at those applications that have been completed by volunteers. I also spend quite a bit of time responding to emails from publishers. 

What do you find challenging about your role?

I think the challenging part as a Volunteer Coordinator is to be able to connect with such a diverse and large group of volunteers. There’s a lot of different people and there’s a lot of time zones! This is where the other Managing Editors come in though, and we work as a team to ensure we’re in constant communication to ensure they have the information they need and also just to make sure they feel appreciated. We know that their time is very precious, they’re all busy people and it’s important for us that they know how valuable they are to DOAJ. 

What do you like most about your role?

Being able to work with so many different people from an array of disciplines and cultures. Connecting to scholars, librarians and researchers from all over the world is a part of my role I really enjoy. Also being able to hear about some of the work and research they are doing and their accomplishments is really cool. Generally just meeting people who are dedicated to Open Access across the world.

What are your personal views on Open Access?

I think Open Access is an important part of scholarly publishing. Most of the research is being conducted by researchers who are funded by public funds, so it makes sense that the public should be able to access the research. In doing so, we’re all as a global community made more aware of changes and important findings. We just need to find a way to get rid of or significantly decrease author charges…