Special issue guidelines

We welcome proposals for special issues on topics that fall under the scope of the journal. Special issues are focused on a specialized topic that is of current interest. Special Issues should be organized by experts in the field of interest and attract high quality articles.

Researchers who would like to organise a special issue propose it with our online form, which asks for:

1. The Special Issue Journal
2. Brief Title
3. Aims and Scope
4. List of Guest Editors, including their names, emails, affiliations, and a short biography for each Guest Editor
5. A proposed timeline, which includes:

• Submission deadline
• First-round decisions by
• Collection complete by

Propose a special issue (the Word template is optional: attach it to the form if you have used it).

The proposal goes to the journal’s editorial office; the editor-in-chief and senior editorial board members decide on it within ten working days. Once it is approved, the call for papers is posted on the journal’s website.

Accepted articles are published as soon as they are ready, in the journal’s regular issues, and grouped on the special issue’s page.

Articles in a special issue carry the journal’s usual charge. For a sponsored special issue the publisher, never the guest editors or the journal’s editors, may reduce or waive it; the call for papers says so.

Guest Editors are required to manage the peer-review process of the submitted manuscripts. Guest Editors will need to read through the manuscript and decide whether it is suitable for publication in the Special Issue. If it is, they invite at least three reviewers to evaluate it; a decision needs at least two reviews.

Reviewers then submit their results along with their recommendations as one of the following actions:

• Accept
• Minor revision
• Major revision
• Reject and resubmit
• Reject

If a manuscript is accepted, the authors receive the invoice, unless the call says the publisher has reduced or waived the charge; production starts once it is paid.

If a revision is asked for, the authors revise the manuscript following the reviewers’ comments and submit it for another evaluation.

The guest editor decides, with at least two reviews, and gives the authors the reasons. A guest editor may publish at most one paper of their own in the special issue; it is handled by another editor, never by the guest editor (see Editorial independence).

Peer review is single-anonymised: reviewers know who the authors are. Reviewers’ names are never shown to authors. We acknowledge the researchers who have performed the peer-review and without the significant contributions made by these researchers, the publication of the journal would not be possible.