The following roles and corresponding duties are sorted more or less from the most needed at the top to those that are well supported at the bottom. Most volunteers participate with multiple roles, but a few only do one task.
Need many more volunteers
Copy Editing: Most manuscripts need some grammatical and structural editing. The most common task is editing to standardized English (or French/Spanish, but any language is possible) with American spellings. A secondary role is checking scientific terminology with taxonomy updates consistent with APGIII and usually following information within Tropicos or parallel databases at Kew/Paris. Copy editors often need to change names on figures and add missing information to figures so that they become consistent with journal policy. Although it is becoming less of a problem, manuscripts that confuse or mix results and discussion of results need to be disentangled.
More volunteers would be helpful
Other Graphics: Visualization graphics often need to be edited to meet the journal standards for font size and information accuracy. This includes modification of titles, figure headings, etc. Images need to be checked for quality and accuracy.
Facts and Statistical Check: Substantive materials within each manuscript need to be checked to verify that data and statistical results reported have been accurately analyzed.
Galley Production: Once all other steps have been completed a galley editor brings together all of the parts of an article, organizing them within a template, and produces a galley for author review. Currently, Adobe In-Design software is used for this process so volunteers need to maintain a current version. Galley editing is a cyclic process with authors receiving time after initial galley production to make corrections or to ask for other changes.
Review Management: All manuscripts submitted to ERA for consideration are reviewed by at least three peer-reviewers. The journal maintains a database of peer-reviewers but relationships between reviewers and editors are essential for completion of reviews. The review process is mostly automated but some reviewers find the review submission process cumbersome so modifications are made. Some reviews must therefore be entered into the system manually by the review editor. However, all authors are expected to submit manuscripts entirely on-line and to complete all application materials asking about originality and research ethics (these are part of the permanent record of the author's intentions). The objective of a review editor should be to find a mix of individuals who can offer fair reviews. A common strategy is to select one reviewer who has published on a similar topic or used a similar method, select one reviewer who is well known as a good writer, and select one reviewer who is newer to the discipline and needs to learn how to conduct reviews. A balance of these reviews will usually provide a good estimation of the value of the contribution and IF it should be published, reworked, or rejected.
Mostly covered with a good volunteer team
Technical support: This mostly focuses on web site development, delivery of journal on-line content, and trouble-shooting. This requires being able to work remotely from a command-line or on location with our servers in British Columbia, Canada.
Map Making: Each submitted map is checked and most are converted into maps that are consistent with the journal's map policy. This includes checking manuscripts for geographic terms/locations and making sure that associated maps are appropriate scale, focus on appropriate locations, and reference locations specifically cited within the text.
Citation Checking: Each citation within each article must be checked to make sure that a complete and accurate citation is being used. Manuscripts are checked to confirm that all citations in the text are also in the literature cited, and that all literature cited is actually cited within the text.