Special Issue Proposals

The journal seeks to publish focussed, coherent thematic volumes that will be of lasting use to the community, well cited, and of the highest quality. The quality requirements are identical to those for regular research papers in the journal. Your, and any co-guest editors’, role in the proposed volume, and thus in any papers that may enter the literature, is thus critical.

The journal editors will require the following:

1. For thematic volumes linked to meetings, the meeting is to be treated as a basis for a coherent volume, and the volume should not be seen as a reporting of proceedings. This means that:

(i)Manuscripts are to be full, regular research papers reporting unpublished scientific data, or may be one or several regular review papers as long as these are on substantive topics.

(ii) The number of manuscripts in a Special Issue may vary, but at the planning stage please aim for 15-20 submissions.

(iii)The list of proposed manuscripts should represent a good coverage of the highest quality work at the meeting or should focus on a specific area e.g. a session/workshop of particular interest from a broader conference, The contents list should mirror that you would expect to see in a publication as a worker on the subject. This implies that all contributors be realistic in their commitments to submit but that, once committed, they do actually submit. Statements of intent etc will not be adequate. Please note that a volume that “unravels” as a result of lack of submissions and therefore fails tocover the subject fully, as judged by the journal editor(s), may be cancelled by the journal. In that case, any manuscripts under review will be transferred to the journal editors for completion of the review process and any accepted manuscripts by this route will be published in a regular issue.

(iv)You are strongly encouraged to announce your volume outside the meeting attendees, in order to attract full and balanced coverage of the subject.

The final compilation is intended as a body of work collected together for the benefit of future workers on the subject.

2. As guest editor, you are welcome to invite review article(s), or yourself contribute review article(s), to form part of the special issue. A review could form a nice opener for a topical special issue, and “set the scene” for the papers that are published as part of the collection. Such articles also tend to be well cited, and we at Elsevier are committed to offering review articles good exposure, for instance via the journal homepages, and on our social media (Facebook and Twitter) sites. The one caveat to note is that it is important that the review article(s) adhere to the agreed submission/acceptance deadlines for the issue to ensure publication of the regular special issue papers is not delayed.

3. Just as the guest editors areseen as being instrumental in selecting a coherent set of manuscripts that fits within the scope of the volume, they also have a vital role in ensuring rigorous independent reviewer selection, review (and re-review), and scientific quality of the manuscripts. Included in this process are the guest editor(s) recommendations on the manuscripts. All papers will as far as possible be reviewed by scientists outside the circle of volume contributors. In addition, where a reviewer requires “major revision”, the revised paper should also be reviewed. In summary, the guest editors are expected to apply the same editorial rigour as the journal editors, and are not obliged to accept any submission, even if invited.Guest editors should not be afraid to reject any submissions that are substandard, either before or after peer review.

4. Please note that the journal editor who oversees the project will make the final decision on the manuscripts.After the Guest Editor has completed their part of the review of each manuscript, the journal editor may require additional rounds of peer review and/or overrule the recommendations of the Guest Editor

5. The review process should proceed promptly, and must take place entirely within the online submission and peer review system. The guest editors are the drivers of this. In brief, this entails you returning the first-round reviews to authors within about 4 to6weeks of the ms submittal date.To this end we ask you to process manuscripts as they enter EES; you should not wait for all papers to be received or process in batches. The guest editor(s) should also ensure that authors adhere to submission and revision deadlines. This is important to avoid delays caused by late submissions or curtailment of the volume due to lack of submissions.The entire process, from the date of acceptance of the proposal to the date of acceptance of the last ms by the journal chief editor should take no more than ca 9 months.We reserve the right to publish any late papers in a subsequent regular issue if the late papers have fallen behind agreed deadlines. Guest editors who fail to do their jobs in a timely manner or who fail to apply the necessary standards of peer review will be asked to step aside from this process.

Please consult other potential contributors and email the following to Yanping Hou, . To ensure potential contributors are aware of the arrangements and requirements, we recommend you share this document with them. In order to generate momentum, please request a response be received from all parties within ca 1 month of today.

Please use the following as a template for your proposal, providing as much information as you can:

  1. Volume title and order of guest editors (names, titles, affiliations and contact information).
  2. List of probable paper titles, with authors and abstracts and if possible the name of the guest editor who will be overseeing its peer review..
  3. Written proposal of about 1 page. This is an essential item. This must state the need for the proposed volume by:

(i)stating the advances provided by the papers in relation to existing knowledge,
(ii) any novelty provided by the papers, and
(iii) the common theme(s) that make the papers a coherent set.

  1. A proposed time schedule for

(i) when the first submission will come?

(ii) submission deadline for all expected manuscripts. This should be no more than 2-3 months after the submisssion site is opened up,
(iii) completion of the review and revision process (i.e. the date when all papers are accepted for publication). This should take no more than 6 months.

  1. Outline of any review papers.
  2. Please confirm that the proposed special issue does not overlap with any other project that is either accepted or proposed with any other journal. If you have any doubts, please provide details.

All proposals will be thoroughly considered, however, please note that the editors may ask for modifications to any proposal or reserve the right to decline a proposal if they see fit. Incomplete proposals may take longer to assess, or may be declined.

Do not hesitate to contact Yanping Hou should you have any questions about the editorial requirements or related to the above.

Thank you for considering this journal for your project; the editors look forward toreceiving your proposal.

1. Publication online, please note: In the event that papers for the volume are accepted for publication after peer review, they are published in the online (Science Direct) edition of the journal within approximately 3 weeksof acceptance. At that point they are part of the citable literature. The actual collation of the collection of papers into the hardcopy volume follows later. Manuscripts thus do not wait for the last paper of the volume to be accepted and are thus more-or-less immediately available for use by the community after acceptance.

2. Authors may of course make unlimited use of colour figures in the online (Science Direct) edition of the journal.

3. Please refer to the journal’s Guide for Authors for matters such as manuscript formating and colour figures.

Please ensure that authors select the correct manuscript type when they are uploading their submission, and additionally mention the name of the SI within their covering letter.Authors should be aware that an invitation to contribute a manuscript to a special issue is not a guarantee of acceptance – around 50% of manuscripts submitted to the journal are rejected, with a significant proportion rejected without review.