editor in chief responsibilities
Editor In Chief Responsibilities
The job description of an editor in chief has always fascinated me, but this job comes with some hectic editorial responsibilities. The responsibilities include a good many things and this article aims at highlighting them. So if you've been offered an editor in chief job, have a look at some responsibilities and duties, before you jump into it.
- Cross checking the facts, spellings, grammar, writing style, design pages, photos etc. is the final responsibility of an editor in chief. The article that comes to him for approval is generally one that has already gone through initial editing processes, but still, should something be wrong with it, the final accountability being that of an editor in chief, he is also required to go through it again.
- It is the responsibility of the editor in chief to reject a piece of writing that appears to be plagiarized or ghost written by another sub-editor. He should check that a particular piece is neither self-plagiarized, nor has been published before elsewhere.
- He is required to make light as well as heavy edits to the content in question. Light edits involve light editing work, i.e., work that does not require making substantial theme changes, structure changes and writing style changes. When all of these require some heavy attention, the editing is called heavy editing.
- He may be required to contribute editorial pieces in the publication industry. He is also responsible for all the content that is approved for publishing and is often accountable for it, if he is working for any of the types of print media. The publication's standards of performance depend heavily on its editor in chief.
- He is required to motivate and develop the staff under him on an occasional basis. Whatever is written in the article should be up to the mark, readable, and matching to the mission and scope of the institution. He also sets various guidelines and policies for his/her subordinates. Often, the responsibilities are seen to expand to the operational and strategic planning of the organization as well.
- It is necessary for him to conduct team meetings on a regular basis, which will keep the team members updated. Assigning responsibilities to all team members and ensuring that they are completed on time is one of the major responsibilities.
- If it is a magazine we are looking at, it is the editor in chief's responsibility to see that the issue is full of content and no area is left empty. They are also required to handle reader's complaints and explain and account for them.
- An editor in chief of a book or journal oversees all the stages of the book, from the manuscript form, all to the published book stage. He performs all the aforementioned editing tasks on the entire book.
- It is his responsibility to cross-check all citations and examine all the references provided in the content. In case of journals, it's the editor in chief who sets and tries to implement the ethical standards.
- A technical editor in chief has the added responsibility to check the technical soundness and technical quality of the content. For this, he is required to have the technical skills in the related field or product. For technical editing, he should know how to use tools such as Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and DocBooks.
- He requires skills of proofreading, copy editing, developmental editing, line editing and editing for search engine optimization.