Anju George Claudio Marasca Rolland Gyulai The JEADV Junior Editor (JE) programme, launched in February 2025 as a four-year initiative, is a vibrant, hands-on journey that assists budding dermatologists in diving into the world of academic publishing and editorial decision-making. Guided by dedicated mentorship and team integration, the programme equips young dermatologists to master peer review and become valued contributors to the JEADV community. The programme began with a selection process that recognized the quality and motivation of successful applicants. Upon acceptance, new JEs were welcomed during an online editorial meeting, where the senior team introduced the journal's vision and outlined their expected roles. The initial comprehensive training provided JEs with key competencies, including an introduction to JEADV's publishing standards, methodologies for evaluating manuscript presentation and quality, systematic approaches for assessing study methods, identification of common mistakes and a transparent framework for evaluating revised manuscripts.1 A key feature of the programme is its mentorship model: Each JE is assigned to a specific clinical section of the journal, such as General Medical Dermatology (including acne and hidradenitis suppurativa) or Inflammatory Skin Diseases (including psoriasis, adverse drug reactions and auto-inflammatory diseases) and works directly under the guidance of an established Section Editor. Each section includes 4–5 JEs, whose primary responsibility is to review manuscripts within their domain. In addition, JEs are encouraged to collaborate with their Section Editors or the Editor-in-Chief to write commentaries or editorials on accepted articles they have reviewed. This collaborative structure provides a clear pathway for in-depth exposure to a defined domain, enabling JEs to build expertise and form lasting professional relationships.1 The programme actively fosters academic leadership by involving JEs in developing official educational material for authors and reviewers on the JEADV website. Here, JEs lead selected topics and collaborate with senior editors to develop PowerPoint materials. These opportunities enable them to actively contribute to the development of editorial standards, with their work published on the journal's website as a lasting resource for the dermatology community. Another aspect that elevates the programme is its encouragement of JE participation in the journal's social media outreach, which creates a direct pipeline between publication and practice, ensuring impactful science reaches practicing dermatologists and trainees swiftly. The expanding JEADV Podcast now features JEs as moderators, a role that sharpens communication skills, facilitates direct conversation with experts and enhances their professional visibility.2 This combination of structured onboarding, targeted mentorship, a progressive workflow and broad community engagement forms the core architecture of the JEADV Junior Editor Programme. To evaluate the effectiveness of this initiative and identify areas for improvement, a survey was recently conducted among the JEs, gathering feedback on their experiences, challenges and perceptions of the programme (Figure 1). The survey results indicate high overall satisfaction. Participants overwhelmingly (63.7%) highlighted learning about the peer review and editorial process as the most valuable aspects of the programme, but networking and collaboration with other editors were also highly valued (48.8%). The most common challenge faced was limited opportunities for discussion and interaction (51.9%), followed by managing workload and limited time availability (34.2%). Survey respondents identified more structured feedback and mentorship (57.5%) as the most important area for programme enhancement, along with greater involvement of JEs in manuscript decisions or initiatives (46.3%). Perceptions of communication and engagement within the JE group varied, with ratings of excellent (14.8%), good (25.9%), fair (33.3%) and poor (25.9%). Regarding engagement with editorial tasks, the survey shows that most JEs have actively participated in manuscript reviews. About 30.5% completed 1–2 reviews and 26.8% completed 3–4, with nearly a quarter (23.2%) having completed seven or more reviews. Only a small fraction (7.3%) had not completed any reviews. Conversely, contribution to commentaries or editorials was less common: 73.2% reported none, 20.7% contributed to one, and very few contributed multiple pieces. While a formal survey was not conducted among senior editorial staff, satisfaction with the quality of JE work was almost uniformly extremely high. In a short period, the JEADV Junior Editor Programme has successfully brought together a dedicated group of dermatologists from around the world. Participants advocate for enhanced mentorship pathways, including formalized collaborations with senior editors to support research and professional development. The success of digital initiatives such as the podcast and educational materials suggests that JEs can play an increasingly important role in shaping the journal's digital presence. JEADV serves not only as a platform for scientific and professional communication but also as a key component of the European dermatological community by fostering the development of the next generation of academic dermatologists. The authors have nothing to report. None declared. Not applicable. Not applicable. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
George et al. (Tue,) studied this question.