Call for Nominations and Applications:

Editor, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2012-2015 term

Job Description 

RSQ seeks to publish high quality articles and book reviews on all aspects of rhetoric, including history, theory, criticism, and pedagogy, that will be of interest to rhetorical scholars in Communication, English, and other disciplines. The journal publishes five issues a year, of which four are the responsibility of the editor and one, the special themed issue, is the responsibility of an associate editor. The editor of RSQ produces four issues of the journal per year. This entails the following activities:

 1. Receiving manuscripts, supervising their review, deciding whether or not to accept them for publication, and writing decision letters to authors.

2. Determining the contents of each issue, including articles, book reviews (in consultation with the book review editor), editorial notes and announcements, and index information (once a year).

3. Submitting accepted manuscripts to the editorial and production staff at Taylor and Francis approximately 3 months before the publication date for the issue.

4. Reviewing and approving proofs for each issue prior to publication. This work involves making the final determination of contents to make effective use of the page budget contracted with the publisher.

5. Forming and maintaining an Editorial Board, and selecting a book review editor.

6. Directing the annual review of each volume of the journal by a subcommittee from the Editorial Board to decide the Kneupper Award winner for the best article published that year in RSQ.

7. Consulting and coordinating with the Associate Editor for Special Issues; selecting a new Associate Editor for Special Issues, in consultation with the RSA Officers and the Board of Directors, when the term of the incumbent expires at the end of 2013.

8. Supervising the work of a student editorial assistant.

9. Communicating and meeting periodically with the publisher on matters of marketing, promotion, representation in indexes and abstracting services, production schedules, and production quality.   

Manuscript load

RSQ currently receives about 120 submissions a year. After an initial screening by the editor, a minority are sent out for review. Present practice is to have two blind reviews, by experts in different disciplinary homes. The acceptance rate has been 12-15%.

Other editorial duties 

The RSQ editor is a non-voting member of the RSA Board of Directors and an officer of RSA. As such, the editor is expected to attend two board Board meetings per year, and to participate in the ongoing deliberations among the officers. 

Institutional support 

Institutional support is needed, e.g. for released time from other duties and support for a student editorial assistant. Because production of the journal is the contractual responsibility of Taylor & Francis, and because submission and review processes are now almost entirely electronic, little in the way of postage and telephone support is needed. A student editorial assistant, employed about one day a week year round, receives and processes manuscripts before the editor reviews them and communicates with authors and reviewers on technical issues concerning submission, manuscript style, formatting, etc. The editor needs travel support for two meetings of the RSA Board per year. RSA provides an annual stipend of approximately $7,000 to the institution to defray some of these expenses; specific arrangements are negotiable. 

Transition 

The current editor is responsible for RSQ volumes of 2008 through 2011. The 2011 volume will be filled sometime in mid-2011. The new editor should be prepared to work with the current editor during the spring of 2011 to learn the routines, to meet the editorial and production team at Taylor & Francis, and to begin evaluating manuscripts for the first issue of the 2012 volume. 

Nomination/application materials and procedure  

Nominations/applications for RSQ Editor should include: 

• A statement accepting the nomination (or a self-nomination).
• A statement about editorial plans and projections for the journal.
• A current curriculum vita.
• Names and addresses of at least two references qualified to assess the candidate's ability to edit the publication.
• A letter from the responsible administrator confirming that institutional support (including released time, administrative support, etc.) will be covered.

The editorial search committee consists of Jeffrey Walker (Chair), Leah Ceccarelli, Cara Finnegan, and Roxanne Mountford. Nominations, applications, and supporting materials should be sent to: 

Jeffrey Walker
Department of Rhetoric & Writing
The University of Texas
1 University Station, B5500
Austin, TX 78712
jswalker@mail.utexas.edu 

(Electronic submission, by email attachment, is preferable.) 

Consideration of applications will begin on April 15, 2010, and will continue until the position is filled.