Publications Coordinator
COG Research Foundation, LLC (Research Foundation) is a California 501(c)(3) entity founded in 2024 to serve as a fiscal sponsor to support research programs by providing legal, fiduciary, and administrative oversight for the program. The Research Foundation serves as the fiscal sponsor for the Children’s Oncology Group (COG).
COG, a member of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN), is the world’s largest organization devoted exclusively to childhood and adolescent cancer research. COG unites over 13,500 experts in childhood cancer at more than 220 leading children’s hospitals, universities, and cancer centers across the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia to conduct more than 50 active clinical trials, with approximately 9,500 participants registered each year in the fight against childhood cancer.
Position Summary
All staff are employed through the Research Foundation. This role will be in service to COG.
The Publications Coordinator supports the development, review, submission, and tracking of manuscripts, abstracts, and related publication materials resulting from COG research. This role manages day-to-day publication operations, serves as a primary liaison for authors and writing committees, coordinates internal and external review workflows, maintains accurate publication records, and helps ensure compliance with organizational policies, standard operating procedures, and applicable public access requirements. This position works closely with authors, writing committees, scientific committee chairs, study committee chairs, statisticians, COG leadership, research operations staff, external reviewers, and other stakeholders involved in manuscript and abstract development, review, approval, submission, and compliance processes. This position reports to the Manager of Member Engagement.
The COG Research Foundation, LLC is a 100% remote employer, though some travel may be required. Employee must reside within the United States.
Full salary range for this position: $70,296 to $101,911 per year. The typical hiring range for this position is from $70,296 (minimum) to $86,104 (midpoint), based on 100% FTE. The starting salary is determined based on the candidate’s knowledge, skills, experience, as well as budget availability.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Manuscript Development Responsibilities
- Manage all day-to-day operational tasks related to COG manuscript development.
- Serve as the COG Publications primary contact for authors, writing committees, scientific committee chairs, study committee chairs, statisticians, and other contributors.
- Engage with study committee chairs to communicate publications requirements and ensure the manuscript development process is initiated within the prescribed timelines.
- Monitor timelines, facilitate follow-up, and support adherence to agreed-upon project milestones.
- Responsible for all manuscript-related updates to the COG study database.
Abstract and Manuscript Review & Tracking Responsibilities
- Review manuscripts and abstracts submitted to COG for required components prior to submission to medical journals, scientific meetings, and other external venues.
- Identify required updates to manuscripts and abstracts, and engage authors regarding incomplete or noncompliant submissions.
- Coordinate internal COG leadership review and approval processes for manuscripts.
- Determine and facilitate external review requirements, including NCI, Industry-sponsored Trials Program, and/or NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) review, as applicable for both manuscripts and abstracts.
- Ensure external reviews are completed for manuscripts prior to journal submission and for abstracts prior to meeting submission. As needed, ensure meeting accepted abstracts receive a secondary external review prior to final submission to the meeting.
- Monitor submitted manuscripts and abstracts for journal and meeting outcomes, periodically following up with authors to verify status.
- Manage and maintain COG publication databases ensuring timely updates to publication statuses, tracking of key milestones, and overall completeness.
- Responsible for ensuring all publications comply with COG/National Institutes of Health (NIH)/NCI and/or other sponsor requirements.
- Monitor MyNCBI bibliographies associated with COG grants’ principal investigators, and ensure publications are associated with the appropriate grant(s).
- Support compliance of published manuscripts with NIH Public Access policy, including deposit into PubMed Central for grant application and reporting purposes.
Additional Responsibilities
- Manage the COG Publications email inbox, respond as appropriate, triage inquiries, and identify issues requiring manager review or response.
- Provide guidance to COG members regarding publication policies, submission requirements, and process expectations. This includes communicating standard practices to COG authors and all relevant parties.
- On behalf of COG authors, submits publication cost invoices for payment in accordance with COG policies and procedures.
- Maintain the COG Abstract Pre-Submission Calendar.
- Responsible for compiling all grant related bibliography requests, ensuring a high degree of accuracy and compliance.
- Create and post bibliography reports summarizing recent COG publications, as required.
- Develop and maintain an author promotion toolkit for COG members to utilize in highlighting their publications.
- Serve as the subject matter expert of all group-wide policies and internal standard operating procedures (SOPs) for abstract and manuscript operations.
- Identify and implement enhancements to processes and systems.
- Stay informed on all relevant NIH policies regarding grant-funded publications.
- Travels to COG Group Meetings twice a year to support meeting operations.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
Qualifications
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.
Minimum Qualifications
- Minimum of two (2) years of related work experience, preferably in medical journal publications.
- Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, English, Communications, or other related field, or substitute with four (4) additional years of related experience.
Other Qualifications
- Knowledge of NIH Public Access policy, PubMed Central deposit requirements, publication compliance processes, or grant-reporting publication needs.
- Experience coordinating manuscripts, abstracts, publications, research administration, scientific communications, or comparable project workflows.
- Familiarity with manuscript and abstract submission workflows, journal and meeting requirements, author review processes, and publication tracking systems.
- Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple submissions, deadlines, reviews, and follow-up actions simultaneously.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to correspond professionally with investigators, authors, committee members, leadership, and external reviewers.
- High attention to detail and ability to review submissions for completeness, consistency, and adherence to requirements.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, shared document platforms, databases, spreadsheets, calendars, and tracking tools.
- Ability to work independently, exercise sound judgment, maintain confidentiality, and escalate issues appropriately.
- Ability to learn new software programs easily.
- Ability to travel to COG Group Meetings twice a year to support meeting operations.
Preferred Additional Qualifications
- Four (4) years of related work experience, preferably in medical journal publications.
- Experience in clinical research, oncology research, cooperative group operations, academic medicine, medical publishing, or scientific publications support.
- Experience developing or maintaining SOPs, process documentation, reports, calendars, and publication status dashboards.
Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) Status
This position is classified as exempt based on the job duties. However, based on the FTE, salary level of the employee, or federal/state/local laws, the employee may be classified as nonexempt.
Background and Credit Checks
Employment with COG Research Foundation, LLC is contingent upon satisfactory completion of a pre-employment background check, which may include verification of criminal history, employment history, education, and other information as permitted by law. A credit check may be required for positions where it is relevant to and permitted based on the nature of the job duties, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. All background check results will be evaluated through an individualized assessment in accordance with applicable law. COG Research Foundation, LLC is an equal opportunity employer committed to fair chance hiring practices.
Why Join Us
This is a unique opportunity to be on the ground floor of a critical role within a mission-driven organization. This position will play a vital part in shaping the function of the Children’s Oncology Group, contributing to lasting change and making a difference in the lives of children and families impacted by cancer.
Benefits
Comprehensive benefit options include medical, dental, vision, 401(k), accrued Paid Time Off (PTO), Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Flexible Spending Account (FSA), cell phone and internet stipends, wellness stipend, paid holidays, and more. Employees who work 20 hours or more per week are eligible for these benefit options. These benefits are provided for informational purposes only and are subject to change in accordance with applicable policies and plan documents.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
COG Research Foundation, LLC is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities are available to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, ancestry, physical or mental disability or medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.
COG Research Foundation, LLC seeks to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool. Employment at COG Research Foundation, LLC is based on merit, competence, and qualifications, and we are committed to providing equal opportunities for training and advancement for all employees. COG Research Foundation, LLC is also committed to making our application process accessible to individuals with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodation upon request. For further information regarding Equal Employment Opportunity, please feel free to access it here.
ADA/Application Accommodation Statement
COG Research Foundation, LLC is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities in the application and employment process, consistent with applicable law. Applicants who require accommodation are encouraged to make their request at the earliest opportunity to allow COG Research Foundation, LLC sufficient time to evaluate and respond to the request. Accommodation requests may be directed to the Recruitment Team at [email protected].
This position falls under a contract with the Federal Government and is subject to the provisions in OMB Circular A-76 which prohibit contractors from performing inherently governmental functions. Specifically, employees placed in agency positions will not perform inherently governmental functions, nor supervise any personnel other than the contractor’s own staff, nor make final decisions or sign documents that commit the U.S. Government.
