RSA - Call for Nominations and Applications ... Editor, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2020-2023 term

Call for Nominations and Applications

Editor, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2020-2023 term

Job Description

RSQ seeks to publish high quality articles and book reviews on all aspects of rhetoric, including history, theory, criticism, and pedagogy. Its readership includes scholars in Communication, English, and other disciplines. The journal publishes five issues a year, of which four are the responsibility of the editor and one, a special themed issue, is the responsibility of an associate editor. RSQ is published by Taylor & Francis, a division of Routledge, under contractual arrangement with RSA.

The editor’s responsibilities include the following activities:

1. Receiving manuscripts, supervising their review, deciding whether or not to accept them for publication, and writing decision letters to authors.
2. Determining the contents of each issue, including articles, book reviews (in consultation with the book review editor), editorial notes, and index information (once a year).
3. Submitting accepted manuscripts to the editorial and production staff at Taylor & Francis approximately 3 months before the publication date for the issue.
4. Reviewing and approving proofs for each issue prior to publication. This work involves making the final determination of contents to make effective use of the page budget contracted with the publisher.
5. Forming and maintaining an Editorial Board, and selecting a book review editor.
6. Directing the annual review of each volume of the journal by a subcommittee from the Editorial Board to decide the Kneupper Award winner for the best article published that year in
7. Consulting and coordinating with the Associate Editor for Special Issues.
8. Supervising the work of a student editorial assistant.
9. Communicating and meeting periodically with the publisher on matters of marketing, promotion, representation in indexes and abstracting services, production schedules, and production quality.

Manuscript load

RSQ currently receives about 140 submissions a year. After an initial screening by the editor, about half are sent out for review. Present practice is to have two blind reviews by experts in the relevant area of scholarship. For the past decade, the acceptance rate has been 10-12%.

Other editorial duties

The RSQ editor is a non-voting member of the RSA Board of Directors and an officer of RSA. As such, the editor is expected to attend two Board meetings per year, and to participate in the ongoing deliberations among the officers.

Institutional support

Institutional support is needed, e.g. for released time from other duties and support for a student editorial assistant. Because production of the journal is the contractual responsibility of Taylor & Francis, and because submission and review processes are now almost entirely electronic, little in the way of postage and telephone support is needed. A student editorial assistant, employed about one day a week year round, receives and processes manuscripts before the editor reviews them and communicates with authors and reviewers on technical issues concerning submission, manuscript style, formatting, etc. The editor needs travel support to attend two meetings of the RSA Board each year. RSA provides an operational budget of $8000 to defray expenses related to the editorial function. Specific arrangements are negotiable with the RSA Executive Director.

Transition

The current editor is responsible for RSQ volumes of 2016 through 2019. The new editor should be prepared to work with the current editor during the summer/fall of 2018 to learn the routines, to meet the editorial and production team at Taylor & Francis, and to begin in January 2019 evaluating manuscripts for the first issue of the 2020 volume.

Nomination/application materials and procedure

Nominations/applications for RSQ Editor should include:

• A statement accepting the nomination (or a self-nomination).
• A statement about editorial plans and projections for the journal.
• A current curriculum vitae.
• Names and email addresses of at least two references qualified to assess the candidate's ability to edit the publication.
• A letter from the responsible administrator confirming that institutional support (including released time, administrative support, etc.) will be covered.

The search committee for the new editor consists of Jenny Rice (Chair), Jeff Bennett, Jenell Johnson, Blake Scott, and Edward Schiappa. Nominations, applications, and supporting materials should be sent to Jenny Rice, jenny.rice@uky.edu.

Consideration of applications will begin on February 15th and will continue until the position is filled. Candidates should be prepared for either a phone or Skype interview.