SPECIAL SECTION PROPOSAL GUIDELINES

Download PDF

To be considered as a Guest Senior Editor of a Special Section, please carefully review these guidelines before proceeding with the Special Section proposal process.

Please use the following as a template for your Special Section proposal:

• Special Section title
• Motivation: This should be no more than 200 words, and should provide a brief introduction to the topic and purpose of the special section. It may also include a short justification of the timeliness of the topic and relevance to the journal’s audience/readership.
• List of topics: A bullet-point list of up to 10 relevant topics of interest.
• Proposed timeline, including submission window and date of expected first submission.
  Please note:
  • Typical submission window is 6 months
  • Notification of reviews and recommendations is 10 weeks after initial submission
  • Final notification of regular papers is 20 weeks after initial submission
  • Manuscript publication on IEEE Xplore is 24 weeks after initial submission
• Guest Senior Editor’s information including title, affiliation, institutional email address, fields of interest, and institutional home page. Please include a short biography including qualifications for editing this specific Special Section.
• A list of potential Guest Associate Editors, including title, affiliation, and email address. Guest Senior Editors may also choose from the current list of OJ-CSYS Associate Editors.
• A list of potential contributors.
• While the OJ-CSYS will assist in promoting your Special Section, please also include ways of attracting/finding potential contributors: How you intend to a) advertise the Special Section, and b) attract authors from as wide a base as possible, ensuring a balance of geographical spread and author gender.

See an example of a Special Section Call for Papers here.

Once you have prepared your proposal, including all information requested in the template, you are ready to submit your completed Special Section proposal form via the online proposal submission system. You will need an Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID) to submit your proposal. You can register your ORCID with any of your PaperPlaza PINs here.

• Log in to your account, following the instructions provided in the system
• Choose “Special Section Proposal” as the type of submission you would like to submit
• Complete the following submission steps and upload all the specified mandatory files and click submit

The system will then route your proposal to appropriate journal editors, who will subsequently review your proposal, and let you know if your proposal is accepted, rejected, or requires revision.

After your proposal is accepted...

GUIDELINES FOR SPECIAL SECTION GUEST SENIOR EDITORS

As a Guest Senior Editor (GSE), you will play a vital role in leading the review process for the Special Section publication. You will supervise the Associate Editors (AEs) for the section and manage the review process for papers in your section. The submission and peer review of Special Section papers must be managed using the journal’s online editorial system, PaperPlaza. All Special Section papers must undergo peer review by a minimum of two independent reviewers (you should not act as one of these reviewers yourself).

Papers submitted to a Special Section will be initially assigned to the GSE, who will then re-assign the papers to an AE. Please note that the editorial load should be equally split among all AEs. OJ-CSYS editorial staff will help you handle the review process.

The AE selects reviewers for assigned papers, and ensures the timeliness and quality of the review process. There are two rounds of the review process, after which the AE makes a recommendation report based on the reviewers’ comments. The Editor in Chief or GSE must approve the recommendation by AEs before informing the authors. They may choose to decline the recommendation or ask for additional peer reviews before making a final decision.

The Special Section peer review process should be initiated as soon as manuscripts are submitted to the Special Section and assigned to the GSE.

To achieve the above goals and to respect the journal commitments (at most two rounds of review; at most 24 weeks from first submission to online publication), all editors must adhere to the following deadlines: