What does a managing editor do in scientific journal editorial board?

Question

I need to contact the editorial board of a journal I recently submitted an article to about an issue, and I am having some thoughts as to who would be the appropriate person to contact.

I know that the Editor-in-chief is pretty much in charge of the show, and the associate editors contribute based on their personal areas of expertise.

I have no idea what a managing editor does however. Intuitively I would assume that this job title would encompass more of the administrative and less scientific aspects of the publication process, but I am not certain.

So what does a managing editor do, and what type of questions should be directed to the managing editor?

Answer 1

Yes, the managing editor is more administrative. For example, when a review is overdue, he may send a reminder to the reviewer. After a paper is accepted, he may send to the author the paperwork to complete.

I would say: do not communicate with him directly, except in response to something he sent to you.

Answer 2

There's no way to tell without more info. The word 'editor' has a wide range of meanings. I have personally worked with journals whose managing editors were effectively the co-editors-in-chief. I have also seen journals whose managing editors were employees of the publisher with no formal training in the journal's subject.

As a general guideline for who to write to: if the issue involves something that only an academic can understand or fix (e.g., the content of the paper, something to do with the peer review process, etc) then write to the editors of the journal. If it involves something mundane (and I would classify the issue you describe in the linked question as such), write to the publisher. You can also just write to the publisher regardless of the issue. A responsible publisher will direct questions they can't handle to the editorial board.