The Meaning of a Job Title

In the Persian language there is a proverb that says, "One raisin and 40 bohemians". Now I say, "One journal and 40 definitions". I wonder how many positions could be in just one career. Actually, I couldn't see any documents encompassing the exact definition of all the following positions. All the stated positions and style of writings are extracted only from a few journals released now. I am sure this list can be extended if we enquire further. I have no idea if this issue has been discussed earlier, but it seems that an immediate action must be made to categorize all these positions into a logical order.

Administrative Editor
Assistant-Editor
Associate-Editor
Chief Editor
Co-Editor
Co-Editor-in-Chief      
Co-editors
Deputy-Editor
Director-in-chief
Editor Assistant
Editor in chief
Editorial Assistant
Editor-in-Chief
Executive Editor
Executive Manager
Literature Editor
Managing editor
Section Editors
Sectional Editors
Senior editors

And so on……

MB Rokni

Associate Editor, Iranian J Publ Health
Associate Editor, Iranian Journal of Parasitology
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...and Medical editor!

Vivienne Miller
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I am happy that you brought this up because when I first established the Iraqi Orthodontic Journal 3 years ago, I did a small search like the one you are presenting to reach the same conclusions. There are so many titles with no clear definition.

Now in the business of medical journalism in many instances the bulk of the work usually comes down to a few people, but there are so many titles to define there job titles.

Also, in many cases some posts may be just honorary so the editor-in-chief may be the dean of the college or president of the society or association without actively participating in the actual work. So in this case what do you call the real guy behind the curtains (exec. editor, assoc. editor, ... etc.)? I hope someone can help find the answer.

Akram F. Al-Huwaizi
Co-Editor-in-Chief, Iraqi Orthod J
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I don't think there is an answer (or a taxonomy) here. The important bit, surely, is the job description, not the title.

Tim Albert
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...which one certainly can't tell from the title!

Vivienne
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...and what about a person in the office who knows how to press ctrl+alt+del.

Is he/she a production, technical, IT, ITC, information science or what kind of editor, if editor at all?

Marko Gaspic