Published on February 19, 2021

Dear colleagues,

We are seeking a five- to six-member editorial team to build and manage a YouTube channel for our field’s journal and book-series publications. Each team member would serve a term of up to two years. 

Participating TPC Publications

The publications participating in the YouTube project are these:

• The ATTW Books Series in Technical and Professional Communication
• Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
• Communication Design Quarterly
• IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
• Journal of Business and Technical Communication
• Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
• Programmatic Perspectives
• Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization
• Technical Communication
• Technical Communication Quarterly

The Vision

Our vision is a YouTube channel devoted to sharing the publications’ content with a larger audience in ways that promote equity and transparency:

• We imagine videos in which authors explain the research methods, findings, and implications of their research. These videos can make research content available to a wider range of audiences, including those who cannot access content behind a paywall. 
• We also imagine videos in which the publications’ editorial staff explain aspects of the publication process. These videos can make the academic publication process more transparent to early-career scholars and prompt feedback on ways to improve our processes, especially how to make processes more equitable.

Members of the YouTube Editorial Team

• Four or five PhD students in TPC
• One faculty advisor

Responsibilities of Service

The faculty advisor would advise the editorial team, and the editorial team would oversee tasks such as the following: 

• developing the guidelines for the channel’s videos
• corresponding with authors
• creating or editing descriptions of videos
• creating thumbnails for authors’ videos
• adding cards and end screens

Please note: We don’t expect that team members will come into the job with expertise in creating thumbnails or adding cards, but we are interested in finding team members who would like to develop such skills.

Benefits of Service

Like many editorial positions in academia, these editorial-team positions are unpaid. But benefits of serving on this editorial team include:

• helping to shape and influence the field
• networking with editors of TPC publications and a wide range of scholars in TPC
• learning about the editorial process of TPC publications
• learning about different types and methods of TPC research
• gaining an impressive CV line by engaging in national service to the field

Directions to Apply 

By May 10, 2021, please send a letter of application (no longer than 1 page, single-spaced) to Jo Mackiewicz at jomack@iastate.edu. The letter should describe your interest in such a YouTube-channel project and your qualifications to serve on the editorial team. 

Review of Applications 

Three editors (Jo Mackiewicz, George Hayhoe, Rebecca Walton) will review the applications for the faculty advisor position and team-member positions and communicate with applicants by June 7, 2021.