Journal Transfer Manager, Frontiers
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Summarize yourself and your professional experience in a few sentences (where you’re from, course of study, where you currently work, job title).
Hello, I’m Han, and I’m from London. I studied BSc Biology at the University of Sheffield and MSc Cancer at University College London before joining Frontiers as a Research Integrity Specialist. I now work as a Journal Transfer Manager in Frontiers’ Publishing Partnerships department.
Please describe the main function of your organization and your current responsibilities.
Frontiers is an Open Access academic publisher focused on making science open. Frontiers publishes over two hundred journals across the fields of science, health, humanities and social sciences, sustainability, and engineering. We also partner with academic societies to publish their journals on our platform – the main focus of the Publishing Partnerships department. The main responsibilities of the Journal Transfer team include collaborating closely with societies to successfully transfer their journal(s) and onboard the editorial board members of the journal(s) to our platform.
How did you get into scholarly communications, and what was your path to your current role?
I’ve been working at Frontiers for just over four years now. I initially joined as a Research Integrity Specialist, a role focused on maintaining and upholding strict quality standards in ethics, conflicts of interest, data integrity, and more across all Frontiers manuscripts. Last year, I actually made quite a change in my career path by moving to the Publishing Partnerships team as a Journal Transfer Manager. The role is a project and stakeholder management role involving a high level of collaboration internally and externally to successfully transfer partner journals to our platform.
What advice would you give to people interested in a career in scholarly communications?
I entered the industry with no prior experience/knowledge about the field – my only experience was as a student who often read and cited academic research for my own assignments! If you’re interested in this industry, I recommend looking into the different types of publishing models, including open access vs. subscription-based publishing, and researching different publishers to understand how they work alongside their mission and values. It’s never a bad idea to reach out to people directly. If you’re interested in learning more about someone’s career path or organization, there’s no harm in reaching out via LinkedIn.
Do you have any fun facts or hobbies outside of scholarly communications?
I am an avid crocheter! I started last year so I’d still consider myself a beginner, and I’ve so far made a few amigurumi pieces and experimented with some granny squares. I’m currently focused on trying to crochet myself a beanie, but that’s going to take a while…I’m staying strong and sticking to it, though, so fingers crossed I’ll have a lovely new beanie before winter rolls around!
