Special Issue Policy

Special issues must meet the same academic, ethical, editorial, and peer-review standards as regular journal issues.

The Editor-in-Chief remains responsible for the scholarly integrity and overall quality of every special issue.

Guest Editors must:

• possess relevant academic expertise;
• have appropriate scholarly credentials;
• disclose conflicts of interest;
• comply with journal policies;
• protect manuscript confidentiality; and
• ensure fair and independent peer review.

All research articles submitted to special issues must undergo the journal’s established external peer-review process.

Guest Editors must not make editorial decisions on their own manuscripts.

Articles submitted by Guest Editors or persons closely connected to them must be handled through an independent editorial process.

Special issues must not be used to:

• bypass peer review;
• guarantee publication;
• artificially increase publication volume;
• create inappropriate citation patterns; or
• publish material outside the journal’s scope.

 

Related Policies:
Peer Review Process | Conflict of Interest | Editorial Process