Editors are the core executors in the publication and operation of scientific and technical journals. Most existing research on editor talent cultivation has been conducted from the perspective of external environment or publisher training, while discussions on editor training strategies based on interviews with excellent editors are rare. Excellent editors have remarkable achievements in journal management, and their practices, insights, and reflections during their professional growth as editors contain valuable wisdom and referential methods, which can provide theoretical guidance and empirical references for the professional growth of young editors.The article utilizes the "Journal Vision" WeChat official account and interview content/report materials from 38 outstanding journal editors of Chinese Journal of Scientific and Technical Periodicals as textual materials, employing thematic analysis and assisted by the large language model Kimi K2 flagship model to accurately extract and summarize the core viewpoints from the interview content, in order to analyze the key elements of the growth of young editors in scientific and technical journals from the perspective of outstanding editors.The research findings reveal that the growth factors of young editors consist of 25 sub-nodes, which can be summarized into 8 main nodes: professional mindset, career planning, knowledge reserve, interpersonal communication, innovation and service, editing skills, learning and growth mechanism, and organizational support. Combining the thematic associations between the main nodes, it is further summarized into three major categories: self-motivation, professional knowledge and ability development, and organizational support and mechanism guarantee. Through selective coding, a "storyline" is sorted out, and a key element model for the growth of young editors in scientific and technical journals is constructed: "self-motivation (internal factors)", "professional knowledge and ability development (foundation)", and "organizational support and mechanism guarantee (external factors)" constitute a "trinity" model for the talent cultivation of young editors in scientific and technical journals. The three elements complement each other and jointly determine the speed, breadth, and height of the growth of young editors. From the thematic analysis of interview content, it can be seen that in the professional growth process of young editors, good self-motivation is required; young editors of scientific and technical journals should become knowledgeable and competent talents: they must systematically master subject-specific knowledge, editing and publishing theories, process norms, and industry standards, as well as keep up with industry development trends, actively learn new skills and knowledge, adapt to the constantly changing domestic and international publishing environment, and possess innovative thinking to bring forth the old and create the new in journal management measures, thereby enhancing the core competitiveness of the journal, as well as possessing high communication and interpersonal skills; organizational support and mechanism guarantee are the solid guarantees for the growth of young editors.Based on the results of the thematic analysis, insights for the cultivation of young editorial talent are proposed: strengthen professional identity and formulate development plans; establish a lifelong learning concept and build a solid knowledge base; adopt multiple measures to cultivate core business skills; foster innovative thinking and dare to innovate; and establish scientific training and assessment mechanisms.