Expression of Interest in Joining JOFDL Editorial Team

Posted on 2026-05-02

To clarify any ambiguity:

  • There is no remuneration available for these roles.
  • Editorial team members must be based in Oceania.

The Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning (JOFDL) is the flagship, refereed, scholarly journal of the Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand (FLANZ). JOFDL publishes scholarly submissions on open, flexible, and distance learning, broadly defined. The readership is primarily academic colleagues across all educational sectors. Although JOFDL aims to share scholarly insights from diverse sectors and contexts, submissions must have the potential to make a substantive and original contribution to the field, with explicit reference to their relevance to colleagues in Oceania. See the Submission page for an outline of JOFDL's definition of scholarship and an outline of manuscript styles. 

The journal is published using the OJS platform. It is expected that all journal-related communications go through the website whenever possible to ensure succession planning is made possible.

You can express interest in either the role of a co-editor or that of the Editor-in-Chief.

The Role of Co-Editor

Serving under an Editor-in-Chief and alongside other co-editors, your duties are likely to include:

  • Identifying potential authors to solicit manuscripts 
  • Managing the submission process in OJS. Which means
    • Undertaking an internal editorial review of each submission (to make sure quality thresholds are met before sending it out for review)
    • Ensuring submissions are appropriately allocated to a category of scholarship
    • Allocating (or identifying) reviewers and following up with them when required.
    • Deciding when a submission is of sufficient quality 
    • Ensuring all details of submission are in place (bios, ORCID, affiliations, ethical statements, acknowledgements, etc.)
  • Co-authoring an editorial
  • Deciding on the order of articles in an issue
  • Promote the issue and its constituent articles on social media.

Depending on your skill set, you may also be asked to:

  • Copyedit and liaise with authors around the final version
  • Format Word documents into PDFs using existing templates
Your Capabilities 

Essential

  • Experience of academic publication (ideally in scholarly journals)
  • Excellent command of English
  • Role within Oceania in any educational sector
  • Capacity to allow for dedicated time for editorial duties (up to two hours each week)

Desirable

  • Experience of editorial processes
  • Experience in copy editing 
  • Experience with advanced Word formatting
  • Experience with the OJS platform 
  • Existing networks in any or several educational sectors
For the Editor-in-Chief Role

In addition to all of the activities and capabilities cited above, you should also:

  • Be able to participate in the monthly FLANZ meeting  (online for 90 minutes)
  • Report back on the progress of the journal at each monthly FLANZ meeting
  • Liaise with FLANZ Executive around licenses and subscriptions.
  • Act as the liaison for ORCID, CROSSREF and PKP (hosts of OJS)
  • Maintain Open Access libraries
  • Call and manage the International Editorial Advisory Board
  • Promote individual articles (currently through LinkedIn, YouTube, and Bluesky
  • Maintain the JOFDL Website (updating pages where necessary)
  • Maintain an overview of all submissions and their progress through the workflow, prompting co-editors where necessary.
Application Process

Please complete and return this form by way of expression of interest. These forms will be reviewed by a panel of three current FLANZ Executive members. More than one appointment may be made. Enquiries for any clarifications can be addressed to jofdl-editor@flanz.org.nz

Closing date for applications is 30 May.