DOAJ is looking for a freelance Marketing and PR Officer to start immediately. The Marketing and PR Officer role is a part-time role, working remotely. The maximum number of hours per week is 30.

Why are we looking for a Marketing and PR Officer?

DOAJ is the world’s only free, independent, community-curated, online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. Our uniqueness makes us stand out from the crowd and we have a powerful reputation that we want to build on. Our name is our brand and, more and more, people recognise it and associate it with quality, open access content. However, DOAJ is also 17 years old and, as with many organisations, there are myths and untruths about us that we believe can be corrected through an effective PR communications strategy.

DOAJ must become the website to refer to for researchers who are looking for peer-reviewed, open access content. We are also known as an advocate for openness. We want to make sure our name becomes synonymous with these points and that the messages which we publish reflect them.  Within organisations around the world, we want to get the attention of those responsible for managing content discovery and electronic resources.

DOAJ is a non-profit organisation which relies on voluntary financial support. We need to be better at communicating our value to both existing and prospective supporters to ensure their support and our continuing survival as a vital service for the open access community.

The main duties

The main duties of the Marketing and PR Officer are:

• Marketing strategy
  • Develop and implement a marketing strategy to improve DOAJ’s presence and reach across communication channels and online and industry events
  • Continue to develop and grow the DOAJ brand
  • Work with web and graphic designers
• External and internal communications strategy:
  • Develop and implement an external comms strategy including:
    • Communications to stakeholder groups about changes and developments around strategy, editorial policy, new features and functionality, funding, governance, partnerships
    • Tailored messages appropriate for each stakeholder group: libraries/librarians/consortia, publishers, discovery services (aggregators, search engines, portals), researchers, funders
  • Develop and implement an internal comms strategy including:
    • Keeping internal groups informed on organisational developments: management team, editorial team, ambassadors, volunteers
    • Advise colleagues on communication style where appropriate
• Creating press releases and online content, using clear, plain English
• Developing and implementing a social media strategy
• Identifying opportunities through new strategic partnerships
• Maintaining DOAJ’s presence and profile in publications, newsletters, blogs, and platforms where debate and discussion about open access happens
• Dealing with enquiries from supporters, the press, and other organisations
• Reporting and analysis
• Representation and promotion of DOAJ and its values online and in person, at conferences, and in meetings

The qualities and skills we are looking for

• You must have at least five years’ experience in internal and external communications, marketing and PR,
• You must have experience of scholarly communications
  • we’re particularly interested in speaking with you if you have worked with academic libraries or research funders.
• This is a new role at DOAJ so we are looking for an experienced leader:
  • we have a good idea of what we want to achieve but you need to get us there.
  • we need someone who is an all-rounder; someone who can think strategically and implement tactically.
• You need to be analytical and be able to tease out the history of DOAJ and how we work to identify our strengths and weaknesses.
• We are looking for someone who is a self-starter and has initiative.
  • You need to be able to identify new opportunities and grow your ideas into reality.
• As a global organisation, it would be preferable if you have some experience of how scholarly communications work outside of North America, Australia and Europe.
• As we work remotely, it is vital that you are independent but aren’t afraid to check in regularly and ask questions.

What else is required of the Marketing and PR Officer

In order to carry out your duties effectively, you must:

• Be a graduate or have some form of further education
• Be able to create and edit basic HTML and markdown
• Be able to create or manipulate images to support online and social media content
• Be fluent in spoken and written English. (Fluency in other languages too is a bonus.)
• (Under normal circumstances) be able to travel to meetings and industry events, including two DOAJ Team meetings a year, usually held in Europe
• Able to work with Google Apps for Business, Google Analytics, Slack, Mailchimp, SurveyMonkey and other project management tools where necessary
• Be available for meetings/contact with the DOAJ team at some point during the hours of 9 am and 5 pm UTC, Monday to Friday (Apart from that, you are expected to manage your own schedule)
• Have a good, solid and reliable internet connection
• Be used to conducting and attending online meetings using Google Meet, Zoom, Skype etc

Diversity

DOAJ is an adopting organisation of the C4DISC Joint Statement of Principles and strives to improve diversity and inclusion in scholarly communications.

Hourly rate

The hourly rate for this role will be calculated based on your experience and geographic location.

Start date

We are looking for someone to start immediately. We envisage a start date, allowing for interviewing and summer holidays, of no later than 1st September 2020 but we are willing to wait for the right person.

Questions

If you have questions about the role described here, about working for DOAJ or about the application process, please send an email to Dom Mitchell, dom@doaj.org.

How to apply

To apply, send a covering letter and a copy of your CV to Dom Mitchell, dom@doaj.org, by 14th August 2020.

A PDF version of this announcement is available.