Special issues
Browse all special issues from European Societies.
- Special issues
Special issue information
Guidelines for Special Issue Proposals
European Societies receives a high number of proposals for special issues. Our policy is to consider only the promising proposals that are within our scope. Our main criteria for selecting special issue proposals are:
a) (Expected) quality of the articles.
b) Originality of the theme and/or the methodology of the research.
c) Involvement of under-represented academic communities.
d) Articulation of empirical work and interpretative and/or theoretical insight.
The proposal should include at least the following parts:
a) The thematic interest and the quality of the research.
b) A call for contributors, or the likely contributors.
c) A list of proposed reviewers who must not be linked to the contributors.
d) A timetable to the final submission.
We ask that each article be reviewed by at least two reviewers double-blind, that is, anonymously to both authors and reviewers. Contributors to the special issue cannot be reviewers.
You will have seen in the “ Authorship” section that we adhere to the BSA authorship guidelines, which we invite you to read carefully. You will need to make sure that likely contributors are aware of our policy and that everyone involved in the research underlying each paper is cited as an author (a short statement detailing uneven contributions can be attached).
We also oppose all “Matthew effects”. Special issue editors should be aware that articles by highly reputed contributors must receive exactly the same treatment as other articles.
Special issue editors can contribute as (co-)authors of an introduction and one more article. Other contributors can be (co-)authors of no more than two articles. Any proposed exception to this rule should be soundly justified.
The final decision on publication remains with the journal, not with the special issue editors.
Special Issues should normally contain 5-10 articles (plus an introduction).
On this basis, you may receive an initial agreement to proceed with composing the issue. After that agreement, the special issue will be handled by you and the articles will flow from you to the reviewers and back (normally via our electronic platform). Once the special issue is complete, you will forward it to the Editor. At that stage, you will discuss any additional points that may arise (quality, additional reviews, coherence etc.) Once, these are satisfactorily addressed, the Editor will give you his final decision.
Finally, an increasingly significant matter is that of (self-)plagiarism and you will need to make sure that the proposed articles are really original, rather than (partially) recycled material that has already been published.
We must stress that European Societies is edited on a voluntary basis. Accordingly, the commitment and autonomy of colleagues who propose a special issue must be high and constant in order for the issue to progress without long delays. This means that the proposers drive the process and the journal monitors to ensure that quality, ethics and coherence standards are observed. However, the publication time for a special issue also depends on other factors, such as previously completed issues, editorial coherence et alia.