Your role as an editorial board member
Editor Center > Editorial board member roles
Your role as an editorial board member
As part of our global editorial boards of active researchers, you help us publish rigorous, high-quality research quickly and openly. This resource outlines the responsibilities and expectations for Academic Editors and Section Editors. Whether you are new to an editorial board, exploring your role, or learning more about our editorial process, you will find guidance on how your expertise in the field ensures each manuscript is evaluated fairly and efficiently.
Beyond your editorial responsibilities, you are a representative of your journal and our organization in your community. Through your outreach, researchers discover who we are, what we stand for, and why their work deserves to be published openly and without restrictions. You create a welcoming space for new and diverse voices and help shape a future where science is open to all, for all.
Lead the peer review process
As an Academic Editor, you play a central role in maintaining the quality and integrity of your journal. Leading the peer review process from start to finish, you begin with an initial assessment of each submission based on our publication criteria. You will identify and invite expert reviewers, evaluate their feedback, make informed editorial decisions, and communicate those decisions clearly and professionally.
Your responsibilities include:
Assessing new submissions
- Take on 1-2 new manuscripts each month.
- Agree or decline invitations within two days.
- Make an initial decision within four days of agreement.
Securing expert reviewers
- Promptly invite reviewers to assess manuscripts that have reached the review stage.
Evaluating feedback and making decisions
- Send a final decision within four days of receiving all reviews.
Guiding authors
- Communicate decisions and next steps clearly.
PLOS Biology and PLOS Medicine
This guidance applies only to Academic Editors of these journals.
As an Academic Editor, you have a vital role in ensuring a smooth and rigorous peer review process. You provide expert advice to staff editors at every stage of the process, for manuscripts that pass initial screening, helping to uphold the highest standards for our authors.
Your responsibilities include:
Advising and assessing submissions
- Advise on 2-3 new manuscripts each month.
- Deliver an initial expert assessment to staff editors within two days.
- Assess revised manuscripts.
Suggesting expert reviewers
- Recommend reviewers for manuscripts that meet your journal’s scope.
Evaluating feedback and recommending decisions
- Recommend a decision within two days of receipt of the complete reviewer reports.
- For revised manuscripts, recommend a decision or seek additional input from previous reviewers.
As a Section Editor, you actively shape your section, support your peers, and build strong partnerships between your journal and the research community. You lead subject sections within your journal’s scope, guide Academic Editors with shared expertise, and serve as a visible advocate for both your section and your journal. With extensive knowledge of your field, you provide expert guidance and uphold high editorial standards.
Leading your section
- Act as the lead or co-lead for a defined section of your journal.
- Support Academic Editors with editorial decisions and provide ongoing guidance.
- Help develop your section by curating content, seeking submissions, and identifying content for promotion.
- Recommend qualified researchers to join the Editorial Board as Academic Editors.
Providing expert guidance and advice
- Provide input on journal policy, including scope, ethics, and discipline-specific standards.
- Advise on whether a manuscript in your discipline is suitable for publication (within your journal’s publication criteria) at any point in the peer review process.
- Help resolve complex editorial decisions and contribute to appeals when needed.
Representing your journal and community
- Champion your journal’s integrity, reputation, and editorial standards.
- Serve as the voice of your section. Collaborate with journal staff, board members, and researchers in your field.
PLOS Aging and Health, PLOS Complex Systems, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Digital Health, PLOS Ecosystems, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS Pathogens, and PLOS Sustainability and Transformation
This guidance applies only to Section Editors of these journals.
In your role as a Section Editor, you oversee more manuscripts than Academic Editors and take a broader, supervisory position. Your leadership throughout the editorial process includes making initial assessments, assigning Academic Editors, reviewing their recommendations, and communicating decisions to authors.
We ask that you provide additional support by:
Managing the editorial process by overseeing submissions in your section
- Assessing the quality and scope of new submissions within three days.
- Assigning an Academic Editor or Guest Editor when needed.
- Reviewing decision letters and sending final decisions within three days.
If you need further help
If you have questions about these roles, email us at edboardsupport@plos.org. The journal team is here to support you.
What is next:
Invitation to handle manuscripts
Related editorial resources
Guide to Editorial Manager
Initial evaluation of manuscripts
