Science editors have a wide open view at the forefront of scientific research. Their job combines the rigor of scientific analysis and critical thinking with the freedom and flexibility to read about different scientific disciplines. This is the second part of my blog series on science publishing; last week, I wrote about the experiences and advice shared by two professional editors from Wiley. This week, let’s take a look at the stories of Dr. Timothy Spencer and Dr. Paul-André Genest on what being senior editor for Nature Neuroscience and a publishing editor at Elsevier are like and what these jobs entail. 
Dr. Tim Spencer is currently the senior editor of Nature Neuroscience. After a postdoctoral position at Columbia University, he decided utilize his expertise in neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration in a different way and he brought his talents and skills to Nature Neuroscience as an associate editor. His job as senior editor has several aspects, including:
- reading submitted manuscripts (typically 10 manuscripts in a week) to determine whether to reject them or move them onto the next step in the publication process; because Nature Neuroscience is a high profile journal, Dr. Spencer described his initial rejection rate as close to 75%,
- for the manuscripts that do manage to go through the pipeline, he is in charge of choosing peer reviewers, reading, reviewing, and finally, along with 7 other editors and the Chief Editor, deciding on whether the submission is accepted; Dr. Spencer described the overall acceptance rate of the journal as 10% of all submissions,
- commissioning review articles and cross-journal projects
- attending small, topical conferences to determine what is current and standard in the field, to recruit papers, and most importantly, to build rapport with the authors and referees
- speaking in career talks and symposia (such as the iJOBS career panel!)
Aside from the usual interviews, Dr. Spencer’s application process to Nature Neuroscience included a take home writing sample test that aimed to gauge, first, his ability on evaluating articles and identifying their strong and weak points, and second, his knowledge and understanding of the current status of the neuroscience field and where it is headed. He also described a test he termed as a “trial by fire”, where he was required to read 3 varied articles in an hour, after which he was grilled on them to test how well he can assess and evaluate articles under time pressure. However, he was quick to point out that although this test was especially challenging, you never have to do it again. Dr. Spencer shared that even during his time in graduate school and as a postdoc, he has always enjoyed reading scientific articles, not only in the neuroscience field, but also in other scientific fields; this is one trait that is especially important as an editor. Even at Nature Neuroscience, as an editor you will receive a submission from a field that is outside of your expertise, and as such, you need to be, while not an expert, at least reasonably knowledgeable on a broader scale. However, as mentioned previously, Nature Neuroscience, and almost all other journals, has an editorial team, and each person brings their own knowledge, input, and expertise into making a decision about a submitted manuscript. 
Dr. Paul-André Genest is an Associate Publisher for Elsevier, where he manages a portfolio of ten Life Science journals. In addition to this, he is also a project manager of Elsevier’s Atlas award. His job as an associate publisher involves several management duties, including:
- managing and supporting the editors for each of his journals, appointing and recruiting academic editors, organizing editorial board meetings
- managing the budget for each journal, negotiating editors’ contracts and salaries
- attending conferences
- expanding the portfolio and launching new journals, which involves business development
Dr. Genest's job title as publisher is not the only thing different between him and the other editors at the panel. While his job does not involve editing manuscripts per se, he is in constant liason with everyone else, including editors, authors, and the people on the "business" side of the company. As mentioned, one of his responsibilities is to launch a new journal, and he handles this starting from writing a business proposal, to planning and handling the budget and marketing. For this type of position, it is essential that you know the language of business. Dr. Genest related that after completing his second postdoc position, he decided to apply for a job at Elsevier. At that time he did not have a lot of concrete information as to what the responsibilities of an editor is, and so his first ever job interview at Elsevier was not successful. However, he emphasized the importance of NEVER GIVING UP, as he continued to apply to these editorial positions until finally landing a part-time job as a freelance managing editor for Elsevier; this led to a permanent position and after being promoted, he landed his current job. The happy ending to his job search is that his current boss is one of the people at his first unsuccessful interview! He shared that as long as you work hard and don’t give up in front of challenges, you will eventually get to where you aim to go. A more detailed version that Dr. Genest himself wrote on his amazing and inspiring story from graduate school and academia into a publishing career can be found here. To conclude this two-part blog series, I feel that each story has been unique and very helpful to graduate students interested in going into science publishing. For me, listening to them and having had the privilege to interact with them has cemented my desire for this career. For more advice on how to apply for careers in science publishing, visit the summary of the iJOBS career panel. A podcast of the iJOBS career panel is also available.