Early Career Researchers Program
Mentorship for Early Career Researchers
ECR Advisory Board
Early Career Researchers Senior Editor: John Coupland, PhD, Pennsylvania State Univ.
Advisory Board members:
- Akinobode Adedeji, PhD; Associate Editor, JFS; Univ. of Kentucky, USA
- Kanishka Bhunia, PhD; Associate Editor, JFS; Indian Inst. of Technology, India
- Marciane Magnani, PhD; Associate Editor, CRFSFS; Federal Univ. of Paraíba, Brazil
- Donald Schaffner, PhD; Scientific Editor, CRFSFS; Rutgers Univ., USA
- Nagendra Shah, PhD; Scientific Editor, JFS; The Univ. of Hong Kong, Hong Kong / Australia
Editorial Scholars Program - Apply Now!
A small annual cohort of Editorial Scholars will be selected for mentorship with our ECR Advisory Board, including activities such as mentored reviews and insight into the peer review and editorial decision-making processes.
We seek applicants who range from near PhD completion through Assistant Professor, or PhDs in their first 5 years of a career in industry, who have already published some of their own work, have been involved in reviewing articles, and are committed to developing their skills as reviewers and future editors. IFT membership is not required to participate.
CLICK HERE to apply for the 2027 cohort by November 20th!
2026 Editorial Scholars Cohort
Five Editorial Scholars will graduate in December 2026:
- Meetha Nesam James, Kraft Heinz Co., USA
- JiaQi Mi, National Univ. of Singapore
- Praveen Kumar Sappati, Indian Inst. of Technology Kharagpur, India
- Clay Swackhamer, Pennsylvania State Univ., USA
- Ogechukwu Tasie, Packaging Technology & Research, LLC, USA
Read their JFS Editorial:
"The First Graduating Class of IFT's Editorial Scholars Program"
Special Issue Call for Papers
Advancing Food Science: Research Led by Early Career Researchers
Early Career Researchers (ECRs) are helping to shape the future of food science and technology through innovative ideas, interdisciplinary approaches, and emerging methodologies.
Journal of Food Science is participating in a multi-journal collection to increase the visibility and recognition of emerging ECR researchers, highlight their contributions to major scientific and societal challenges, and foster their longer-term engagement as authors, reviewers, and members of the wider scholarly community. Submission deadline: August 2027. Details here.
Educational Webinars Series
The Advisory Board regularly organizes free educational content about peer review, research integrity, and editorial management of journals. Webinars will be held live; recordings are posted to IFT's YouTube channel. Watch them below!
The Role of AI in Academic Publishing
Thursday, November 5th – 11am San Francisco | 1pm Chicago | 2pm Montréal | 3pm São Paulo | 7pm London
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in various aspects of scholarly publishing is hotly debated. The pressure to publish a lot and quickly has led to an increase article submission, especially post-pandemic. This need and burden have increased the temptation to partially or completely outsource both the writing and review duties to AI. In this webinar, we will attempt to answer some critical questions on use of AI in scholarly publishing such as: What is AI/LLM and how does it actually learn to write? What are current policies of publishers and journals on use of AI in scholar publishing? What use cases are ethical? How are journal editors using AI tools to support peer review? How and when should authors declare use of AI? Are reviewers allowed to use AI, and if they do, what are the implications for the review process? With recent improvements to many of the frontier models and new AI agents, should publishers begin to relax the rule around use of AI in scholarly publishing?
Speakers:
- Akinbode Adedeji, PhD; Associate Editor, JFS
- Moderator: John Coupland, PhD; Senior Editor, Early Career Researchers
The Path from Manuscript to Published Paper
How to Review an Experimental Manuscript: A Discussion with JFS Editors
How to Review a Review Manuscript: A Discussion with CRFSFS Editors