Special Issue

How to Submit a Special Issue

To submit a proposal for Special Issues, the journal requests an official document including:

1) The title of the proposed Special Issue and the topic covered. A summary of the objectives of the Special Issue is also required to evaluate whether it falls within the aims and scopes of the journal. The journal also requires, whether possible, a list of titles or abstracts of the articles, if already collected, to evaluate the quality of the manuscripts before submission. A list of authors is required as well.

2) Submission deadline and expected date of publication.

3) A list of Guest Editors, including their current affiliations, personal information and institutional emails, ORCID ID, brief résumé and prior publications and/or Special Issues and a possible list of reviewers with complete affiliation and email addresses.

The Editor in Chief and the editorial team will evaluate the suitability of the Special Issue in terms of quality and alignment with the aims and scopes of the journal.

Please, download the following form, which must be appropriately signed, filled, and sent to submission.jim@verduci.it

Any incomplete Special Issue proposal will not be considered. By signing this agreement, the Guest Editors accept and ensure to strictly adhere to the following responsibilities and guidelines.

 

Peer-Review Process Management

  1. To track and keep records of the special issue process, any submission has to be finalized through our online system (publishingmanager.org).
  2. The peer-review process is managed through our online system as well.
  3. Each manuscript undergoes a regular peer-review process as established by our guidelines and must be sent at least to three reviewers with a high expertise in the field.
  4. In addition to the reviewers proposed by the Guest Editors, peer-review is also conducted by the journal’s reviewers and external reviewers.
  5. Decisions concerning the acceptance or rejection of manuscripts are based on the reviewers’ assessment.
  6. The Editor in Chief, the Deputy Editor, the Responsible Director, and/or Editorial Board Members maintain oversight and participate in the decision-making process.

 

Guest Editors’ Responsibilities

  1. The Guest Editors are responsible for collecting manuscripts, contacting authors, and inviting researchers.
  2. Guest Editors propose a potential reviewers’ list, ensuring they comply with the journal’s COI policy. It is likely that Guest Editors appear as authors in contributions to the Special Issue. Note that as per the latest COPE and DOAJ guidelines, contributions from Guest Editors must be limited to the 25% of the total issue.
  3. Note that Guest Editors cannot make decisions about any article on which they are named as authors or in which there are possible conflicts of interest. In these cases, the Editor in Chief, the Deputy Editor, or the Responsible Director, oversees the manuscript and nominates independent and external reviewers for the peer-review.
  4. The Guest Editors, along with the Editorial Board Members, overview the review process by ensuring it follows the editorial policies and timely submissions from authors.
  5. The Guest Editors are responsible, together with the authors, for the final check and approval of the galley proofs before publication.

 

Editor In Chief and Editorial Board Members’ Responsibilities

  1. The Editor in Chief, the Deputy Editor, the Responsible Director and/or Editorial Board Members maintain oversight and ensure the absence of any real, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest or peer-review irregularities.
  2. The Editor in Chief has the final right to accept or reject manuscripts of the Special Issue.
  3. The Editor in Chief has the right to cancel any Special Issue if any irregularity and unethical practices arise during the review process.
  4.  The Editor in Chief nominates independent and external reviewers for the peer-review for contributions in which Guest Editors appear as authors.

 

Ethical Considerations

  • By signing the agreement, the Guest Editors agree to follow the above-mentioned editorial guidelines and COPE Guidelines on Good Publications Practice.
  • The manuscripts have to follow the journal’s guidelines as specified in the Instructions for Authors. 
  • The journal guarantees transparency as the submissions and review process of the Special Issue are managed on our online system Publishing Manager.
  • Guest Editors, authors and reviewers are required to keep confidential all details of the editorial and peer-review process on submitted manuscripts.
  • An unethical use of self-citation is forbidden and can result in the rejection of a manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

Any real, potential or perceived conflict of interest related to the topic of the research must be declared by the Guest Editors during submission and by authors in each manuscript. The authors are also required to flag a disclosure on conflicts of interest during submission on the Publishing Manager system.

 

Publication Process

After final acceptance, the articles are not published in the regular issue of the journal; indeed, they are labeled as “special issue” and published in a dedicated “supplements section” on the website, which doesn’t follow the quarterly scheduled publication.

The Editorial Office sends the galley proof twice to corresponding authors, who must approve the proof before publication. Any issues/requests (i.e., authorship changes, major corrections to the manuscript, and so on) are managed as per journal policy.

 

Post-Publication Concerns

Post-publication concerns are managed as per journal policy. If concerns are raised after publication regarding Special Issue contents, the Editor in Chief and the Editorial Board Members take the responsibility to promptly investigate any irregularities as for regularly published articles.