Summary: How, exactly, does one get to be an editor of a Nature-branded journal? What do we do? How do we decide what to publish? And what’s up with all our journals? In this episode of Forecast, I hash out these issues with Bronwyn Wake, the chief editor of <a href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/index.html" target="_blank">Nature Climate Change</a>. But don’t worry … if you’re thinking about becoming an editor, working in a bar is not a prerequisite.<br> I’m 46 and bald, but when people meet me, they frequently say that they were expecting someone even older, and, I suspect, sporting an extravagant beard and wearing a thin-elbowed tweed jacket. The reality is that the editors across our journals span a range of ages from freshly-minted PhDs to editors who have been in the job for decades. And, unusually for a scientific career, there is excellent gender balance!<br> Editing can also allow you to have — really! — a reasonable work-life balance in a challenging and intellectually stimulating career. So, if you’re nodding your head in agreement at Nature’s blood-curdling feature on the <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/young-talented-and-fed-up-scientists-tell-their-stories-1.20872" target="_blank">brutal challenges of starting a scientific career</a>, editing is something to think about.<br> Most of our editors have broad interests and a preference for a non-academic lifestyle. Bron’s voyage to editing took her through undergraduate degrees in Japanese and chemistry, working in a bar, almost teaching English overseas, chance encounters with science opportunities (in Antarctica), interesting work as a postdoc but no clear avenue to a permanent position. As is the case for a lot of us, Bron “…really enjoyed the research and the field work…” but the rest of the academic pathway wasn’t too compelling.<br> Bron attended a Nature career fair in London and felt that editing might fit the bill. After an hour-long chat with my boss at Nature, Karl Ziemelis, Bron interviewed at Nature Climate Change and was soon hired. As is often the case, there was a chance for promotion, and Bron now runs the journal.<br> Running a journal, though, is no picnic. Nature Climate Change was our first journal working in the social sciences, and attracting the best work from these communities took a huge effort, and remains challenging. The range of content is correspondingly vast, spanning <a href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v5/n2/full/nclimate2470.html" target="_blank">climate impacts</a><br> to <a href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v5/n4/full/nclimate2564.html" target="_blank">battery packs</a>:<br> Managing brings new challenges. Staff moved on to launch other projects within the company, and recruiting can seem endless. Bron juggles manuscripts with writing editorials and Research Highlights, editing News & Views, coordinating with the art and production teams, and commissioning content. Still, for Bron, the job is not all-consuming: unlike in academia, you can usually shut off your work brain when the day is done.<br> If all this sounds appealing, and you’re interested in learning some more about a career as an editor, let me know via forecastpod@gmail.com or m.white@us.nature.com and I’d be happy to chat.<br> <br> <br> Music: Anemic Alloy! by SubRosa <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/" target="_blank">CC BY-NC-SA 3.0</a>. Available on Soundcloud.<br> <br> <a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A%2F%2Fforecastpod.org%2Findex.php%2F2016%2F11%2F04%2Fbronwyn-wake-chief-editor-nature-climate-change%2F&via=MWClimateSci" class="twitter-share-button">Tweet</a><br>
