Background

The BOU is one of the world’s most respected ornithological organisations, with an international membership stretching across all continents. Our mission is to promote ornithology, which we do through publication of excellent science in our journal IBIS, supporting a global community of scientists and practitioners, through conferences and online resources, and providing grants and bursaries to fund research and career development. We are especially proud of our initiatives to engage and support the global ornithological community, particularly early career ornithologists, and in promoting equality and diversity in ornithology.

#theBOUblog

The BOU is widely recognised as the leader in the use of social media in ornithology, being an early adopter of social media and wider online engagement within our global ornithological community.

#theBOUblog has been an integral part of this engagement for the last decade. The most-visited section of the BOU website, #theBOUblog delivers twice-weekly articles on papers published in IBIS and other journals, as well as covering a broad range of topics, from the use of social media to diversity issues within ornithology.

The role of Journal Support Officer

The BOU’s Engagement Committee has an exciting opportunity for you to work with us on delivering our blog content. This is one of four Support Officer roles within the BOU – Journal Support, Conference Support, Social Media Support and Blog Editor. The roles vary and demands on individual Support Officers fluctuate but we ask each Support Officer to provide a minimum of 18 days support service a year.

This role is initially for two years and is supported by an annual honorarium of £1,100.

Our Journal Support Officer is responsible for writing fortnightly blog posts covering published IBIS articles and scheduling social media posts promoting the individual articles. These blog posts complement author-written content on #theBOUblog sourced and coordinated by the Blog Editor. You will be working directly with and be supported by the BOU’s Chief Operations Officer.

Key aspects of the role are:

• To deliver fortnightly blog posts covering published IBIS articles.
• To work with the Blog Editor and the Chief Operations Officer in managing a schedule for IBIS blog post outputs.
• To adapt occasional blog posts for use in other BOU media, e.g. member newsletters, online e-newsletters.
• To reference each newly published IBIS article on Wikipedia.
• To assist with the online promotion of IBIS-related BOU blog posts and IBIS articles.

Applicants should have a broad interest in ornithology, science communication and the use of social media in promoting science. You should have good written English and experience with writing blog content is preferable. Some experience with WordPress is desirable, but not essential. You will need to be self-motivated, be able to work unsupervised, deliver to deadline and be familiar with the BOU, its role, its activities and its standing within the ornithological community.

The role of a BOU Support Officer is particularly suited to an early career ornithologist as these roles progress personal development in key areas such as science communication, working within a team to deliver core activities and working at society committee level to help develop and deliver a wide range of outreach activities.

Applications and schedule
Complete this online form to apply for this position.

Deadline for applications: 0900 GMT, 24 November 2023.

Start date: 2 January 2024

About the BOU

The BOU’s core activities are:

• Publishing IBIS as a leading international journal of ornithological science.
• Organising a programme of scientific meetings and conferences.
• Awarding grants and bursaries for ornithological research.
• Encouraging engagement and liaison between those actively engaged in ornithological research.
• Providing a representative body of the scientific community able to provide ornithological information and advice to government and other policy makers.

The BOU has a strong, global membership and social media presence which we use to drive our activities and to promote ornithology at the widest level, particularly within the global scientific research community. We use our social media outreach to drive the online attention of IBIS papers and to educate our ornithological research community about the benefits of promoting their research and how to do this effectively.