Sourcing, training, and onboarding Editorial Board members and new journal editors is time consuming, and it often takes editors months to get up to speed. Below we present two case reports on early career initiatives, undertaken by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics (ASCPT), that invite participants to work closely with an established editorial team for a year. The goal of both programs is to create expert peer reviewers and, potentially, journal editors who can be counted on to provide exemplary service to the journals. Additionally, these programs function as a networking, skill, and career building step for their participants. Both ASCO and ASCPT feel the programs have been highly successful and urge other journal teams to consider a long-term commitment to developing and shaping future editors and reviewers.

ASCO’s Editorial Fellowship

In 2016, Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) journals established an editorial fellowship. Originally, the program was intended to build author capacity in low- and middle-income settings. JCO Global Oncology had just begun publishing, and it was clear that authors from these settings needed more support and training around conducting and publishing research. With this in mind, the program has a “train the trainer” model, whereby those who complete the fellowship are expected to take what they learn and share it with their own networks and home institution. The program is now open to oncology fellows anywhere in the world.

This year-long program pairs oncologists in the fellowship stage of their career (or local equivalent) with journal associate editors to provide a behind-the-scenes look at what editors do every day to make a journal a success. Over the course of the fellowship, participants:

• Complete a free online reviewer training course

• Review papers submitted to the JCO journals

• Are paired with a mentor (experienced journal editor) and meet regularly with that mentor to get feedback on submitted reviews

• Attend routine journal editor calls

• Attend regular calls with mentors and other fellows, focused on a particular aspect of scholarly publishing (e.g., plagiarism, paper mills, etc.)

• Attend ASCO’s annual meeting

• Complete a final project that reflects what they have learned during the fellowship

Different tracks, like biostatistics, have been added to the fellowship to expand the utility of the experience to a broader pool of applicants.

By participating in the program, fellows receive hands-on experience of the peer-review process, learn about scholarly publishing, gain networking opportunities, and receive continuing medical education credit and Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology points. The program has evolved over the years, adding ad-hoc projects, participation in journal podcasts, and an option for a second year, during which fellows act as mentors for reviewer trainees. With more than 50 individuals having completed the fellowship, many continue to engage with the journal through writing editorials, becoming board members and even being appointed as associate editors.

The feedback we receive is that this program fills a gap for these early career oncology professionals. Generally, while researchers are expected to participate in the peer-review process, they don’t receive training in how to perform a good review, or how to write and submit a journal paper. Fellows are asked to complete a pre- and post-program evaluation survey with questions like “I know the characteristics of a well-done manuscript review”, and we have found that all scores improve after participating in the program.

We launched the first fellowship class with one journal and only four fellows. Now, five out of the six JCO journals have their own fellows with a total of fourteen this year, and we receive hundreds of applications annually. Unfortunately, we are limited in the number we can accept by the number of volunteer mentors we can recruit, so we can generally only accept 10-15. As we receive so much interest and can only select a small group each year, we continue to look for other avenues in which we can further engage those interested in the program while balancing the resources we have.

ASCPT’s Editor-in-Training Program

Launched in 2019, ASCPT’s Editor-in-Training (EIT) program just welcomed its fifth cohort. This one-year position grants participants unparalleled, hands-on access to one of ASCPT’s three journal editorial teams, involving them in manuscript decision making, journal strategy meetings, themed issue planning, and various special projects throughout their term.

Applicants to the program must be in the Early Career stage of ASCPT membership (or willing to join the society if they are not already members), which ASCPT defines as within the first five years of practice, post-graduate degree. It is preferred that they have some experience with peer review, a handful of previously published works, and a demonstrable history of involvement with ASCPT or an equivalent society.

As the program has grown and developed, journal staff has tweaked and refined the call for applications and interview process to encourage as diverse a range of candidates as possible. The call for applications intentionally states that people from historically marginalized or minority backgrounds are urged to apply, and this year, we added low- and middle-income countries as well. To date, most cohorts have been evenly split in terms of gender, with only one cohort varying in that it skewed heavily female. Once the interview process starts, race, gender, country of origin, etc. are not taken into account, but the diversity of the candidate pool has grown year over year, which indicates that our recruitment policies are having an effect. We also publicize each new cohort as they begin their term so that, hopefully, future candidates see themselves in current EITs and feel inspired to apply.

For the first four to six months of their terms, the EITs’ main responsibilities include running the journals’ social media accounts (X and LinkedIn), attending and participating in monthly journal meetings, taking on rapid reviews of papers for which a reviewer has dropped out or for which staff has had trouble finding the necessary number of reviewers, and taking part in the journals’ yearly two-day strategy meetings. They may also be asked to join the planning committees for themed issues or special collections, depending on where in the conception to publication cycle these happen to be.

Following this introductory period, EITs become almost “junior” associate editors. They are assigned submitted papers that match their areas of expertise, and they guide these through peer review and collaborate with the editorial team to send decisions to the authors. Additionally, as mentioned above, they often take on side projects, often digging into some aspect of the journal that hasn’t been explored or updating out of date information and policies. Past projects include:

• Analyzing altmetrics and the impact of social media on citations and downloads

• Updating the journal’s Author Guidelines

• Researching how a journal has grown in its 10-year history and writing an editorial in celebration of this anniversary

• Collaborating on the creation of a new article type

• Delving into papermills and helping to create materials that will assist other editors and journal staff in spotting these papers before they are sent to reviewers/published

To date, at the end of their terms, the vast majority of EITs have been asked to the join the editorial board of the journal on which they served, and we now have six former EITs serving as full-fledged associate editors. Because they have completed the EIT program, when they join an editorial team, they require very little onboarding and training, which lessens the burden on journal staff and leadership.

Testimonials from former EITs include:

This opportunity allows me to explore the inner workings of a journal, expand my perspectives and actively engage in the decision-making process for papers. Moreover, it shows me how critical the peer-review process is for a journal's success.

• Zhu Zhou, PhD

Being an EIT has significantly expanded my professional network and deepened my understanding of pharmacometrics and systems pharmacology beyond my primary focus area, aligning perfectly with my commitment to continuous learning and improvement. This unique experience has opened new collaboration opportunities, clarified my future career aspirations and strengthened my desire to pursue further editorial roles in clinical pharmacology, pharmacometrics, and systems pharmacology.

• Jane Knöchel, PhD

The EIT program is an incredible opportunity for Early Career Members to become involved with ASCPT. You get the chance to be mentored by the Editor-in-Chief of an ASCPT journal, gain invaluable insights into the editorial process, network with the amazing editorial team members, craft and endorse exciting special themes, and promote the dissemination of cutting-edge science in clinical pharmacology.

• Zachary Taylor, PhD

In short, we have found the EIT program to be a draw and benefit to current and prospective early career members as well as to the ASCPT Journal Family. Each year, the EITs bring fresh perspectives, energy, and enthusiasm to our journals, and they go on to serve as expert reviewers and associate editors following their terms. As journal staff, it’s invaluable to have a handful of people to whom you can turn when you need a quick, high quality review – one that you know will meet expectations because the staff and editorial team have put in the work to make sure their feedback will be top-notch.