As jehewson said, among large commercial publishers it's common to outsource abroad. For journals run by professional societies, it might be more common to do t

As jehewson said, among large commercial publishers it's common to outsource abroad. For journals run by professional societies, it might be more common to do things in-house. That said -- and keep in mind that this might be different in different academic disciplines -- I'm not sure that this would be appealing work for a graphic designer. There just isn't room for creativity of any sort. Mathematics papers have an extremely homogeneous look and feel, and everyone in the discipline is perfectly okay with that. Maybe textbook companies would be a better bet -- although with its $200+ textbooks that industry has its own set of problems. That said, if I were writing a student-oriented book (as opposed to a research paper), I would welcome the chance to work with someone with creative ideas for the visual presentation. Good luck!