9  Editorial management

Guidance for managing the editorial team.

9.1 Recruiting new editors

Recruiting new editors and maintaining a sufficient and well-balanced editorial board is a responsibility of the Software Review Lead, with support and advice from the editorial board.

Steps:

  • Start a private channel for discussion (so that it does not have a history in the editors channel that future editors will join, which could be awkward).

  • Ping editors to be sure they get a notification as this is an important topic.

  • Wait for a majority of editors to chime in before inviting someone. Leave them one week to respond.

9.2 Inviting a new editor

  • Candidates might start by being guest editors. When inviting them as guest editor, invite them as you would invite a guest editor for other reasons.

  • If a candidate is guest editor first, assess how the process went after the submission is tackled. Asked other editors for their advice again.

  • Send an email.

We would like to invite you to join the rOpenSci editorial board as a full member. [SPECIFIC REASONS FOR INVITATION (MENTION CONTRIBUTIONS TO ROPENSCI)]. 
We think you would make a wonderful addition to the team.

[IF GUEST EDITOR:You are familiar with the editor's role as you've been a guest editor].  We aim for editors to handle four packages per year ([IF GUEST EDITOR including the one one you just finished!]).  
We ask that editors make an informal commitment of serving for two years, and re-evaluate their participation after that.  
On a short-term basis, any editor can decline to handle a package or say, "I'm pretty busy, I can't handle a new package for a few weeks."

In addition to handling packages, editors weigh in on group editorial decisions, such as whether a package is in-scope, and determining updates to our policies. 
We generally do this through Slack, which we expect editors to be able to check regularly. 
We have editorial board calls annually.  
We also rotate Editor-in-Chief responsibilities (first-pass scope decisions and assigning editors) amongst the board about quarterly. 
You'll have the opportunity to enter this rotation once you have been on the board for some time, usually at least six months. 
Some of us also take on bigger projects to improve the peer-review process, though this is entirely optional. 

We hope that you'll join the board!  
It's an exciting time for peer-review at rOpenSci.

Please give this some thought, ask us any questions you have, and let us know whether you can join us.

Best,
[EDITOR], on behalf of the rOpenSci Editorial Board

9.3 Onboarding a new editor

  • Inform rOpenSci community manager so that

    • editors are added to the rOpenSci website.
    • an introduction blog post can be put together.

  • If they haven’t already done so as guest editors, request that the new editor turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) for GitHub.

  • Invite editors to the rOpenSci GitHub organization as member, as a member of the editors team and the data-pkg-editors or stats-board sub-team, as appropriate. This will give them appropriate permissions and allow them to get team-specific notifications.

  • Editors need access to the AirTable database of software review.

  • Editors need access to the private editors channel in rOpenSci Slack workspace (and to the Slack workspace in general if they didn’t previously, in that case ask rOpenSci community manager).

  • Post a welcome message in the channel, pinging all editors.

  • In the Slack workspace they need to be added to the editors team so that @editors will ping them too.

  • We add editors’ names to

  • Add editors to https://github.com/orgs/ropensci/teams/editors/members

9.4 Offboarding an editor

  • Thank them for their work!

  • Remove them from the editors-only channel and the editors Slack team.

  • Remove them from https://github.com/orgs/ropensci/teams/editors/members and sub-team.

  • Inform rOpenSci community manager or some other staff emember so that they might be moved to alumni team members on the website.

  • Remove their access to the Airtable workspace.

  • Remove them from