JoULAB Head of the Board of Reviewers
Applications Open: Monday, 12th September, 12:00 UTC
Deadline: Friday, 23rd September, 23:59 UTC
Invitations to Final Round of Applications: Saturday, 24th September
Interviews to Take Place: Sunday, 25th September - Friday, 30th September
Decisions by: Saturday, 1st October
About the Journal
The Journal of the Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain (JoULAB) is the world’s only academic journal taking submissions in all areas of linguistics from solely undergraduate authors. We were founded in July 2020 and currently have an Editorial Committee of 10 people, which includes teams dedicated to submissions, reviewing, and copyediting. Administratively, the Journal does not have one person ultimately in charge; instead, two individuals are jointly responsible for overseeing all operations: the Editor and the Head of the Board of Reviewers.
All submissions are peer-reviewed over several rounds in a double-blind system by 2 doctoral students in linguistics from across the world (we currently have 62 from 36 institutions across 11 countries); the majority of whom were personally interviewed by members of the Editorial Committee. We accept manuscripts from any subfield or discipline of linguistics, and papers are eligible if the bulk of the research was completed whilst the author was an undergraduate and if it was finished within 3 years of submission. We also have an ISSN: 2754-0820.
Role Description
JoULAB is looking to recruit a new Head of the Board of Reviewers on a voluntary basis to join its Editorial Committee for a period of up to 3 years. Tenure of the role expires after 3 years from acquiring the position, upon the completion of their concurrent PhD programme, or any earlier at the incumbent’s discretion. The Head of the Board of Reviewers co-leads the Journal with the Editor, and is ultimately responsible for all aspects of the reviewing process, and the Journal's academic administration in general.
This primarily involves assigning manuscripts to 2 members of our Board of Reviewers (or, in some cases, seeking ad hoc reviewers), but will also involve actively recruiting doctoral students of linguistics to join the Board of Reviewers, discussing reviews with reviewers, and getting involved with any other administrative duties the role requires, such as managing the database of manuscripts and reviews along with the Associate Editors. The two main additional administrative duties are approving abstracts and determining the details for a paper’s Final Acceptance (both of which are responsibilities shared with the Editor).
This is an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic and hardworking PhD student keen to give back to the undergraduate linguistics community. The successful applicant will join a passionate and ambitious Editorial Committee united by a common goal of providing a platform for world-leading undergraduate linguistic research. They will have diligent communication skills, excellent attention-to-detail, the willingness to commit time and effort into JoULAB, and an intuitive sense of how best to drive the Journal onto further successes.
Person Specification
- Prospective applicants must be about to start (i.e., within 6 months), scheduled to start (e.g., as part of a 1 + 3 or 2 + 2 programme), or currently undertaking a PhD involving linguistics or a closely related field
- A solid foundational knowledge of linguistics is required, with confident understanding of at least a few areas of linguistics
- The ability to commit at least 4 hours’ Journal-related work per week
- The confidence to coordinate the global Board of Reviewers in a timely fashion
- Strong organisational and administrative skills, and attention to detail; proficiency in Microsoft Excel and Word is desired
- Experience reviewing abstracts for conferences or journals and working with or marking undergraduate work is a bonus
- Past involvement with ULAB (including reviewing for JoULAB) and a willingness to get involved with wider JoULAB and ULAB activities (e.g., promotion, social events) is a bonus
Application Information
To apply, please use the form in-built on the ULAB website (here). You will need to provide a 500-word cover letter explaining why you wish to apply for this role, the specific experiences you have that make you qualified to succeed in it, and what you would hope to accomplish were your application successful.
Shortlisted applicants will be invited to a final round of applications, which will include attending a brief interview. The best applicants will be able to prove that their academic, extracurricular, or personal experiences make them suitable for the position, that they have the time and flexibility to contribute effectively to JoULAB, and that they possess excellent skills relevant to the role for which they have applied.