Elsevier Careers in Publishing Workshop
On Wednesday, April 19th 2017, CNSPY hosted a workshop event on careers in publishing that was sponsored by the publishing company Elsevier. There were three career mentors in attendance, Peter Harrison, Ph.D., Ella Hinson, Ph.D., and Cherise Bernard, Ph.D. and there were 45 attendees.
Dr. Harrison has 22 years of experience in publishing. He started at Elsevier as an Assistant Publishing Editor and is currently the Vice President of Health and Medical Journals. In this position, he is responsible for managing the production of a group of international journals. The publishing career track focuses on interfacing with multiple groups at Elsevier to ensure the timely and effective publication of journals. Additionally, many of these journals rely on academic editors to decide content rather than internal professional editors. Dr. Harrison emphasized that the publishing role requires analytical and scientific skills as well as excellent communication, negotiation, and management skills.
Dr. Hinson joined the editorial staff of Cell Host & Microbe in 2010 and is currently a Senior Editor. As an editor, Dr. Hinson is responsible for overseeing the review process of submitted papers. This entails communicating with authors, reviewers, and other members of the editorial team during the review process and deciding if submitted papers are appropriate for the journal. In addition to these responsibilities, editors also have the opportunity to contribute to the journal’s editorial policies, symposia, publishing formats, and author services. For an entry-level position as an editor, it is not necessary to have prior editorial experience, but it is important to show broad knowledge of science and an interest in the review process.
Dr. Cherise Bernard joined Elsevier in 2015 as the Senior Manager of Global Academic Relations, where she is responsible for creating and driving strategic initiatives between Elsevier and U.S. universities and organizations. For this type of position, it is helpful to have a background both in scientific research and business, and there are many ways to gain business experience, such as a MBA program, a technology or business fellowship, or working in the business side of a pharmaceutical company. Dr. Bernard emphasized during her presentation that it is helpful to think of your career in terms of what skills you are developing and how these can be applied in many different areas of the scientific research process and that it is possible to switch between sectors, such as biotech, publishing, and consulting.
In closing, we would like to thank Peter Harrison, Ella Hinson, and Cherise Bernard for speaking at this workshop and Elsevier for sponsoring the event. We would also like to thank CNSPY members Ira Kukic, Kristen Murfin, Supriya Kulkarni, Nidhi Vishnoi, Leo Ma, Jenny Cheng, and Sandra Martinez-Morilla and Elsevier employees Ryan Bailey and Lindsay Gay for their contributions in support of the event.
