The Royal Economic Society is soliciting expressions of interest for the position of Data Editor for its journals for a three-year period from 01 May 2025. The position is remunerated. There is also a budget to pay a replication team. To apply, please send a curriculum vitae and covering letter to RES Senior Publications Manager, Brooke Sperry: ej@res.org.uk by 28 February 2025. Interviews will be held in March.
For an informal discussion about the role, please contact the current Data Editor, Florian Oswald: ejdataeditor@gmail.com
Background
The Royal Economic Society currently publishes two journals, The Economic Journal and The Econometrics Journal. While both journals have a long history of data replication policies and publishing replication packages, in December 2019 RES appointed its first Data Editor to design and implement a process for running pre-acceptance reproducibility checks for these packages.
The Economic Journal and The Econometrics Journal require authors of empirical, experimental, or numerical papers to provide a complete replication package which documents how their results were obtained in sufficient detail and accuracy to allow their results to be replicated.
The aim is to promote the transparency, reproducibility and replicability of research published in the journals.
Responsibilities of the RES Data Editor
The Data Editor leads the implementation of the data reproducibility and replication policies and processes for both RES journals, recruiting and coordinating a team of replicators that conduct the reproducibility checks. The Data Editor is also responsible for the further design and development of replication policies, workflow, and procedures.
In particular, the Data Editor will:
- recruit, manage and coach a replication team of senior PhD students to ensure professional, accurate and efficient (target turnaround rate of 2 weeks) handling of reproducibility and replication checks;
- correspond with authors and editors to report on results of reproducibility and replication checks;
- work with editors and editorial office staff to identify solutions to streamline the workflows and communicate with authors;
- monitor, review and update the existing data reproducibility and replication policies for both journals;
- work with the publisher, OUP, data providers, providers of scientific infrastructure and other stakeholders to identify technical and legal solutions that promote transparency, reproducibility, and replicability of research;
- maintain and develop the data replication websites for both journals; and
- participate in the biannual meetings of the EJ and EctJ editorial teams. This includes producing regular reports.
The Data Editor will directly report to both the Editor-in-Chief of The Economic Journal and the Managing Editor of The Econometrics Journal.
The Data Editor will uphold the highest standards of professional conduct and act in the interest of the journals in promoting high quality and innovative research. In particular, the Data Editor will treat all material, and the results of the reproducibility and replication checks as strictly confidential within the editorial process. The appointment of the Data Editor is conditional on the submission of a conflict-of-interest statement and on adhering to COPE guidelines and the RES journals’ data and ethics policies.