Editor Salaries
L Rimkunas
Tuesday, 20 January 2009 15:46 UTC
Hello,
I am interested in a career as a scientific editor, what are the current salaries for Assistant and Associate Editors at big journals? I have tried to look this up online, but there really isn’t much information out there about scientific editors’ salaries. Thanks!
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Hello “L”. This is a forum for the Nature journals, so answers are only relevant to those journals. If you are interested in other publishers, you can ask them directly.
At Nature journals we do not usually put salaries in our job advertisements, but every job advertised has an internally agreed salary range. The successful candidate will be offered a salary within that range appropriate to her or his experience. There are a lot of levels of editor position, so the salaries can range from quite low for editorial assitants, to high if you are editor in chief of a journal.
Best wishes
Maxine. -
This isn’t the kind of job you do for the money. It’s too much fun for that.
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Thanks for the input, but any ideas on starting salaries? I am just looking for a general range, like is it better than post-doc salary for an entry level PhD position? I understand salaries are usually a touchy subject, but there is absolutely no info out there on salaries for scientific editors. It is hard to make a decision on what career to pursue when one cannot be realistic about the level of compensation. Will I be a poor starving graduate student/post-doc forever if I go into scientific publishing?
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I can’t tell you any numbers for salaries at Nature journals. I also don’t know the salary for an entry-level postdoc. I imagine they are in the same ballpark, though.
You also need to bear in mind that a permanent position, as opposed to a temporary one as is common in academic posts, carries a lot of benefits beyond the bottom-line salaries.
You might like to go to the NatureJobs careers forum for a more detailed discussion of this – for example there was an “alternatives for scientists” careers fair late last year, and some of the speakers have contributed to the Nature Network column, and might be able to provide more information.
Of course, another factor is that at the moment, with the global financial crisis, publishers are not exactly rushing to hire new staff, or indeed to offer pay rises to those they have already hired. Some publishers (not Nature Publishing Group) are instituting pay cuts and redundancies. Therefore, your question is not a “static” one. -
I sympathise with your question. When I was looking to change careers it was very hard to find any facts and figures regarding levels of compensation.
My two cents: if you’re leaving grad school and going into the journals you’ll likely be compensated equal or above your academic postdoc colleagues.
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That is probably right, Ian. Publishing has never been an industry where people make tons of money – in my experience, the salaries are not that different from equivalent levels in academia – maybe a little more but not a whole lot – but as mentioned above, a permanent position with all the associated benefits that brings is worth a lot more than the stated salary, compared with a postdoc or other temporary academic appointment.
If one wants to go into a career where one can make a lot of money, I would have said “financial industry” but not any more! Not publishing, though. Like acadmeia, in publishing a singificant proportion of the reward is job satisfaction, as mentioned above by Henry. There are other benefits, for example at Nature journals, manuscript editors get to travel a lot, to conferences and on lab visits.
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I think I am getting too used to Friend Feed, where one can correct one’s entries after the fact. Apologies for the typos in my response above.
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Hi,
I think one of the critical differences is that academia is very specific while any work in a publishing/editorial organisation offers exposure and experience in the business world. I am not convinced that science is a field you go into if you are wanting to make a ‘quick buck’ or planning to retire early. It is very much driven by passion and the rewards (or compensation)for your blood, sweat and tears are not commonly of the monetary type.From personal experience I can say that a start in academia may be slower in terms of salary rises. I find that the salary climb involves a lot more plateaus as opposed to being a clear exponential increase. The only means of promotion – equating to a pay rise – involves very unique hurdles (e.g. becoming senior lecturer, A/Prof, Prof etc)which are strongly dependent on your research activity and ability to shine light on scientific problems. Yet, these hurdles will only get you to a senior level with respect to staffing in a given department. To attain career progression and more generous salaries one has to look at positions at the Deans level. The catch is that these not only require considerable research experience and acknowledgement in a given field, but commonly “organisational” experience (e.g. Director of research Centre; place on board of Directors of a company etc.). Therefore, your career progression and subsequent pay rise is strongly relative to opportunity which can be controlled by something as trivial as experimental time or more importantly what novelties you are able to determine from your data.
Meanwhile my impression is that if you approach your career from an ‘Industrial/administrative’ point your career progression is based a lot more on experience; how quickly you learn and how effectively you are able to translate this knowledge into personal incentive. Yet, if you look at the CV’s of the majority of Nature editors (all levels) – they all come with very high academic experiences. This naturally accelerates them into certain positions as they come with a wealth of knowledge and hands-on experience. This is not to be underestimated.
Sorry for the long post. I just think it is important to realise that there are no short-cuts and utlimately you should not do a job just because the money is good – chances are it will not evoke your passion and thus drive.
Good luck
Maria -
Anonymous
Common salaries for assistant and associate editor at big scientific publishing companies are quite low.
In big companies (Wiley, Nature….) an associate editor will make a little over 30k pounds/year or 35-40 kEUR (gross salary). 10% less for an assistant editor. 10-20% more for a senior editor.
It is not a very fast paced career, financially, until you switch to a more managing or sales position.
It can be a beautiful job, but if you are looking for competitive salaries you should look into some other industry. -
My feeling is that focusing on initial salaries etc is not the right thing to do. In every field you have to start from low levels. All what matters is a 5-10 years perspective. So I would like to ask a more general question to Nature Editors.
What are the long term perspectives of someone starting as en editor in a company? What can they typically become after a certain number of years? Can you stay an editor and earn a sustainable salary, compatible with a family life? How many switch to freelance scientific writing? Does anyone shift to science policy, or a broader analysis of science in government agencies? What other possibilities are out there? Does one lose the contact with science when shifting to a more managerial position?
How do you (I assume a Nature editor may respond) see your medium term future?
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