Collections & Guest Editing
Special Issues Guidelines
This guide explains what special issues are, how they can be structured, what guest editors are responsible for, and how special issue submissions are expected to be managed.
What is a special issue?
A special issue is a curated collection of papers organised around a focused theme, emerging area, or timely research question. Although the collection has its own framing and editorial identity, submissions still follow the journal’s standard peer-review and publication standards.
Benefits
Focused discoverability
Readers can navigate a coherent set of contributions in one clearly defined thematic collection.
Community building
Special issues can bring together active scholars around a shared research frontier.
Editorial visibility
Strongly framed collections can help surface important topics and emerging conversations.
Standard review quality
Papers remain subject to the same independent review standards as regular submissions.
Proposal essentials
- A title and scope statement that clearly fit the journal’s remit.
- Proposed guest editor details, affiliations, and relevant expertise.
- A rationale describing the topic, significance, expected submission types, and target community.
- A realistic timeline, contributor plan, and outreach strategy where applicable.
Guest editor responsibilities
Guest editors are expected to uphold journal scope, confidentiality, fair review, conflict disclosure, and publication ethics. They must not pressure authors for irrelevant citations or participate in decisions where conflicts exist.
Guest editor duties
- Help frame the collection title, theme summary, and keywords.
- Identify suitable contributors and help promote legitimate calls for papers.
- Support manuscript triage and recommend appropriate reviewers where requested.
- Work with the editorial office to keep the collection timely, rigorous, and inclusive.
Promotion and outreach
Successful special issues usually require active communication. Editors may promote the call through direct outreach, academic networks, events, mailing lists, society communities, or institutionally appropriate channels while maintaining scholarly neutrality and inclusiveness.
Editorial procedure
Special issue submissions should follow the same core editorial standards as regular submissions. Where a guest editor is an author, or a conflict of interest exists, an alternative editor or editorial board member should oversee the process and the final decision.