Special Issues

 

1. What are Special Issues?

 

Special Issues normally revolve around a trending topic in a research community, but they can also cover a conference, scientific meeting or symposium or underline a marking moment in history like the anniversary of a journal (10th, 25th, 50th, 100th, etc.) or the passing of a prominent figure in the field or a past founding Editor for instance. Special Issues are a highly effective tool for increasing output of high-quality content and promoting a journal to a wider audience.

 

2. Introduction of Guest Editor Role

 

Guest Editors are usually invited by a journal to edit Special Issues. Some journals also accept special issue proposals which are subject to evaluation and approval by Editor-in-Chief. This guide clarifies the role of the Guest Editor/s involved in the Special Issue process and provides more details about the editorial process of Center for Energy and Economics Studies journals, facilitating efficient communication and thereby supporting the success of a Special Issue.

 

3. Benefits of Guest Editor Role

 

There are many benefits for acting as Guest Editor of a special issue:

 

1. Enlarge your network by engaging with scholar in the research community
2. Keep update with most recent development of the field
3. Increase your own influence and impact in the field
4. Build your editorial experiences
5. Be recognized by promotion evaluation committee

 

4. Duties and Workload

 

Duties

 

As a guest editor, your duties will be:

 

• Prepare the Special Issue’s title, summary, and keywords for introduction purpose.
• Identify/invite authors for the special issue.
• Set deadlines to ensure timely submissions and timely publication.
• Pre-screen and supervise the entire peer review process and make decision about submissions.
• Help with marketing activities of the special issue if possible.

 

Workload

 

The amount of work required will depend on the quality (and number) of papers you will  handle, but the average workload is around 4-5 hours per paper taking into consideration the time to identify the authors, read their papers, find the reviewers, read reviewers’ comments, handle the revisions, provide editorial recommendations to our Editor-in-Chief, etc.

 

We expect the special issue project to take around 80 hours of work spread over a period of about 10 months. You are welcome to team up with 1 or 2 collaborators (co-Guest Editors) of your liking so you can divide the workload to make it more manageable

 

Special Issue Timelines

 

We normally recommend giving the authors about 3-5 months to write and submit their papers, taken into consideration around 3-6 months for peer review and submissions of revisions, and about 2 months for production and issue compilation, so you should expect the entire process to take a minimum of 8-12 months (probably more if there are any delays in each step)

 

After You Are Appointed

 

Here is the information we may need from you:

 

1. A summary on the aims and scope of the special issue (if call for papers is needed).
2. The submission deadline for the articles, and if extensions on this are allowed how long the extension can be.
3. The name and contact information for each Guest Editor.
4. A numbered list of articles with the submitting/lead author name, institution, and email address as well as the (concept) full article title.
5. An indication of the division of the manuscripts between you and your co-Guest Editors.
6. If there are any special formatting requirements or files required for the submissions.

 

Submission Deadline

 

This should be a realistic deadline as authors need enough time (3-5 months) to prepare and submit the paper. Better not to set deadlines during the holiday seasons as many authors will not be able to submit.

 

Extension to submission deadline can be granted after discussing with the Editor-in-Chief and usually long extensions should be avoided as they affect the entire publication of the special issue and impact the authors who have submitted much earlier.

 

Peer Review and Best Practices

 

• All papers should and must be peer reviewed before they are published.
• You are expected to handle the peer review process within the editorial system in a timely manner.
• You are required to make decisions based on at least 2 independent referees’ reports.
• It’s very important to investigate any potential conflict of interest. Guest Editors can handle the review process of all papers if they are not authored by themselves. If there are submissions from Guest Editors, the review process will be taken care of by Editor-in-Chief.
• Once reviewers submit their recommendation along with the reviewer’s report, as a

Guest Editor, you have full authority and responsibility to recommend rejection, revision or acceptance of each manuscript.

• The EIC accepts or rescinds the guest editor recommendation depending on quality of the external review comments and makes the final decision on all submitted manuscripts.
• If you are not sure of the journal’s criteria, we suggest you discussing it with Editor-inChief before inviting authors.
• Follow publishing ethics guidelines when handling peer review.

 

5. Ethical Responsibilities

 

Please note that special issues are subject to the same strict and rigorous ethical principles as regular journal issues. If unethical practices are detected, a special issue will be cancelled by the Editor-in-Chief.

 

Below information is a subset of the overall ethical duties of guest editors who should note in particular the information and advice provided on ethical editing, the duties specified in editor contracts, and the importance of maintaining transparency throughout the special issue publication process. In addition, the following guidelines must be observed:

 

Journal Metrics

 

The guest editor shall not attempt to influence the journal’s ranking by artificially increasing any journal metric.

 

Transparency and process

 

The guest editor shall use the electronic submission system for all journal communications and make appropriate use of the Elsevier’s systems for the detection of plagiarism.

 

Confidentiality

 

The guest editor should protect the confidentiality of all material submitted to the journal and all communications with reviewers. Unless the journal is operating an open peer review system or reviewers have agreed to disclose their names, the guest editor must not disclose reviewers’ identities.

 

Disclosure and conflicts of interest

 

The guest editor should follow the journal’s policy relating to the disclosure of conflicts of interest by authors and reviewers.

 

The special issue may publish submissions from the guest editor but the number should normally not exceed one (except where specifically approved by the Editor-in-Chief and Elsevier). The guest editor must not be involved in decisions about papers in which s/he has written him/herself. Peer review of any such submission should be handled independently of the relevant guest editor/co-editor and their research groups, and there should be a clear statement to this effect on any such paper that is published.

 

6. Support from Center for Energy and Economics Studies

 

Commissioning Editor

 

The Commissioning Editor (CE) will act as a central contact for all activities related to a special issue. He/she can support you in following ways (some of the activities may be performed through submission system by Editorial Assistant):

• Identify potential contributors/authors for the Special Issue.
• Invite authors on behalf of you (by email) to contribute to the Special Issue unless invitations are made through a Call for Papers.
• Send follow-up emails to authors regarding their confirmation to the invitation.
• Roll out reminders to those authors who have agreed regarding the timetable of the Special Issue.
• Escalate unresponsive author(s) and ask for a replacement if necessary.
• Monitor submission progress and coordinate production of the Special Issue.
• Work with marketing team to promote the Special Issue in various ways during Call for Papers stage or after it is published.
• Evaluate usage, download and citation data of the Special Issue.

 

Associate Managing Editor

 

The Associate Managing Editor (AME) is responsible for oversight of the process from submission to acceptance, as well as the implementation of editorial office strategies and best practices. AME is your point of contact for submission system related issues.

 

Editorial Assistant

 

The Editorial Assistant (EA) is responsible for the day-to-day editorial office tasks, such as submission checks and correspondence with authors and reviewers. EA is overseen by AME.

 

Production Manager

 

The Production Manager (PM) is responsible for oversight of the process from acceptance to publication, as well as the implementation of production improvements and best practices.PM is your point of contact for production related issues.

 

Production Editor

 

The Production Editor (PE) is responsible for the day-to-day production tasks such as

 

Typesetting / copyediting, and proofing correspondence with authors and editors. PE is overseen by PM.

 

7. Editorial Procedure of Submission to the Special Issue

 

The Guest Editor(s) can select one of the following actions in response to a submission: accept, reject, ask author for revision, or ask for an additional reviewer after the peer review process. When making an editorial decision, you are expected to verify:

 

Pre-Check

 

• Overall suitability of the manuscript to the journal/section/Special Issue;
• Manuscript adherence to high-quality research and ethical standards;
• Standards of rigor to qualify for further review.

 

First or Final Decision

 

• The suitability of selected reviewers;
• The adequacy of reviewer comments and author response;
• The overall scientific quality of the paper.

 

If there is any suspicion that a paper may contain plagiarism, a Center for Energy and Economics Studies Editor will recheck it using the industry standard anti-plagiarism software.

 

Guest Editor(s) have a responsibility to make decisions on the acceptance or rejection of submissions based on the collected review reports (depending on the journal’s policy—in some cases, they may make a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief). Please kindly note that (a) if there are conflicts of interest between the Guest Editor(s) and authors, or if you are not available to make a timely reply to the Editorial Office on matters of acceptance or rejection, we will invite another Editor from the journal’s Editorial Board with an appropriate research background to check and make decisions; (b) if the Guest Editor(s) supports the acceptance of a manuscript despite a reviewer’s recommendation to reject, Center for Energy and Economics Studies staff will seek a second independent opinion from an Editorial Board member or the Editor-in-Chief before communicating a final decision to the authors.