Publishing Director

Lund University Press, a brief presentation

Lund University Press is an English-language academic publisher which collaborates with Manchester University Press. While books are accepted and subjected to editorial review in Lund, they are produced, sold and marketed by Manchester University Press. A rigorous peer-review process guarantees that accepted MSS are of high scholarly-scientific quality. All books are simultaneously published in print and Open Access, the latter at the Manchester OA site Manchester Open Hive as well as on the OAPEN platform.

Most of the 12 books published so far, among which monographs and edited volumes make up about 60/40 per cent respectively, were written/edited by scholars associated with the Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology (the HT Faculties); but the Press also welcomes submissions by authors/editors from other Lund faculties. At the present moment, two monographs from the Faculties of Medicine and Fine Arts respectively are going through the pre-publishing procedure.

The Press is currently an infrastructural unit under the HT Faculties. And with the present financing model, the publishing operations of the Press must for legal reasons be restricted to research wholly or to a great extent conducted within the framework of employment at Lund University.

The HT Faculties at Lund University wish to recruit a new Publishing Director, to start work preferably on 1 January 2025. The employment corresponds to 80 per cent of a full-time post.

We offer

Lund University is a public authority which means that employees get particular benefits, generous annual leave and an advantageous occupational pension scheme. We also have a flexitime agreement that provides good conditions for work/life balance.

Read more on the University website about being a Lund University employee Work at Lund University

Work duties and areas of responsibility

The person recruited for this position will lead Lund University Press activities with some support, including the assistance of a part-time economist and an Editorial Committee consisting of representatives of various departments/faculties. The successful candidate will, however, be the main driver of the Press, his/her duties comprising the following, among others:

• starting and evolving initiatives in collaboration with and with the approval of the Editorial Committee
• taking care of the continuous relationship with the partner Press
• arranging regular meetings with the Editorial Committee and maintaining records of these meetings
• assuming responsibility for the drafting, signing and fulfilling of contracts with co-operating entities of various kinds, as well as with authors and editors
• assuming responsibility for the drafting and implementation of the Press’s annual budget and similar documents
• handling the peer-review process, as well as co-operating with other publishers and with persons and organisations in the fields of research administration and communication
• conducting a certain degree of so-called ‘reaching out’ to presumptive authors and editors with a view to encouraging them to carry out scholarly-scientific work that may lead to a submission to Lund University Press
• keeping authors and editors informed of the dissemination of their works and monitoring the impact of their publications
• completing applications for external funding
• pursuing continual efforts geared to the spreading of information about the Press, both towards university-based actors/operations and towards society at large, the media included.

Qualifications

Requirements for employment are:

• An academic degree at an advanced level, not less than a two-year Master’s degree or an M. Phil./M. Litt., in the Humanities, Theology or Social Sciences.
• Native-quality English, spoken and written.
• Documented and varied experience of international scholarly-scientific book publishing, based on work with an academic publisher.

The position requires qualities such as a high level of communication skills, and an independent and enterprising personality. Having an interest in, and the capability to navigate in, topical research fields is crucial.

Additional qualifications for the position are:

• Education in the field of publishing studies at an academic level.
• Experience of work in research libraries.
• Good knowledge of Swedish, alternatively Danish or Norwegian, German and French.
• Experience of research communication at the highest level.
• Good contacts in the world of academic publishing, as well as within the international research community.
• Experience of representing a research-related activity, both within the academy and outward towards society at large.
• Experience of independently running projects related to research communication.
• Experience of administrative work related to research.
• Interest in working with Open Science and with innovative publishing models.

Further information

Employment is for an indefinite term with a scope of 80 per cent of full time preferably starting on January 2025 or by agreement. A trial period may be applied. For more information about the position please contact the dean Johannes Persson.

How to apply

Applications are to be submitted via the University’s recruitment system. The application is should include a personal letter justifying your interest in the position and how it matches your qualifications. The application should also include a CV, degree certificates or equivalent and any other document to which you would like to draw attention (copies of grade transcripts, details of referees, letters of recommendation, etc).