Policies and Guidelines for Publishing Special Issues

** This can be downloaded as a pdf document here. **

From time to time, InterPore Journal may publish a special issue, which is a group of articles on a common topic. Depending on the number of articles, it will be published either as a separate issue of the journal or as part of a regular issue. The content for a special issue may also result from a recent or upcoming conference or meeting.

Content submitted to a Special Issue will undergo the same review process as all other content submitted to the journal and will be published in the same format and layout. The journal further adheres to the ethical guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and the publication standards defined by Medline/PubMed. Future indexing of such content will depend upon its compliance with the criteria set by Medline/PubMed once the journal has achieved this milestone.

A proposal for a Special Issue should be prepared, following the guidelines provided below, and submitted to the Editorial Office for evaluation by the Editors of InterPore Journal. You can download a form to use for the proposal here. 

Policies

The main policies regarding publication of Special Issues, which are based on those set by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, are as follows:

  • Proposed content must fall within the aims and scope of the journal, it must be of a timely nature, and it must be of a scientific, educational, or informational value to the readers.
  • Full responsibility for the Special Issue will reside with the Editor-in-Chief of InterPore Journal. This includes ensuring that the standard policies and practices set for the Journal are followed.
  • The Editor-in-Chief may appoint one or more external editors to act as a Guest Editor / Co-Guest Editors. However, full responsibility for the work of these Editors remains with the Editor-in-Chief.
  • The Editor-in-Chief has the final authority for either rejecting submitted manuscripts prior to peer-review or sending them out for peer review.
  • All content for the Special Issue will undergo the standard review process of the journal and the final decision regarding Accept or Reject will be made by the Editor-in-Chief. Should one or more Guest Editors be appointed, they will manage the review process and provide a recommendation to the Editor-in-Chief who will then issue the final decision.
  • To maintain editorial independence and minimize editorial endogeny, manuscripts submitted by the Guest Editor(s) or Co-Guest Editor(s) for inclusion in the Special Issue will be handled entirely independently by the Editor-in-Chief or another appointed Editor, without involvement of the Guest Editor(s) concerned. In accordance with the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) criteria, articles authored or co-authored by the Guest Editor(s) must not comprise more than 25% of the published content of the Special Issue.
  • Thorough disclosures must be made by the Guest Editor(s) regarding any conflicts of interest which may exist. This information must be stated in the actual proposal as well as with the published issue online.
  • If an Industry or an Institutional Member is involved, the disclosure must include specifics on any financial relationship as well as with any of the for-profit products which may be discussed or implied in the text of the article.
  • The same disclosures and the same requirements for Authorship that are followed by all articles published within standard issues of the Journal will also be required for articles published as a Special Issue.
  • Should the content of the Special Issue be associated with an event, then information of this event will be published along with the Special Issue.

The above guidelines are based on those published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Adherence to these guidelines ensures that the Journal’s reputation, integrity, and independence are not damaged in any way.

In addition, the Journal adheres to the ethical guidelines established by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). More information on these guidelines can be found here.

Guidelines for Special Issues

I: Proposal

A proposal containing the following information must be submitted to the Manager Editor of the journal, who will review for completeness and then forward it to the Editor-in-Chief.

  • Name(s) of potential Guest Editor(s) along with affiliation, and contact information. Final selection of Guest Editor(s) will be made by the Editor-in-Chief.

  • Proposed title, accompanied by a brief description of the topic and its significance.

  • List of potential contributors to the special issue, including the subjects or titles of their proposed contributions.

  • If any proposed Guest Editor intends to submit a manuscript to the Special Issue, this must be declared in the proposal. Such submissions will be subject to independent editorial handling, and the total number of Guest Editor-authored papers must comply with the journal's endogeny policy.

  • For conference proceedings or symposium-based-issues, details of the event, including its name, location, and date.

  • If a Sponsor is involved, a clear statement of the sponsor's role, including any financial or editorial support being provided.

  • Proposed timeline, outlining key milestones such as the start of submissions, submission deadline, expected delivery of final content, and desired publication date.

The proposal will be reviewed by the Editor-in-Chief and the Editors of the Journal. For submission, Special Issue articles must be prepared in accordance with the Instructions for Authors and submitted via the Journal’s online submission system. Each article should be designated as a “Special Issue Paper”, and the title of the corresponding Special Issue should be clearly stated in the cover letter. Details regarding the review and production processes are outlined below.

You can download a form to use for this proposal here.

II: Review and Production Process

Once the proposal for a Special Issue has been approved, it will be the responsibility of the appointed Guest Editor(s) to contact potential contributors and invite them to submit their manuscripts. The Managing Editor of the Journal will collaborate closely with the Guest Editor(s), ensuring that all efforts are coordinated and that the Guest Editor(s) receive the necessary support.

Upon receipt, manuscripts will undergo the same initial checks as all other submissions, including verification of compliance with journal style and notification of the Editor-in-Chief. If no issues are identified, the designated Guest Editor(s) will be informed and will oversee the peer review process. 

In cases where a Guest Editor is listed as an author or co-author of a submitted manuscript, the editorial handling and peer review of that submission will be conducted independently by the Editor-in-Chief or another appointed Editor, without any involvement of the Guest Editor concerned. To preserve editorial independence and minimize editorial endogeny, papers authored or co-authored by the Guest Editor(s) will not constitute more than 25% of the published articles within the Special Issue, in accordance with DOAJ requirements.

The final decision on acceptance, revision, or rejection of each manuscript will rest with the Editor-in-Chief, based on the recommendations provided by the Guest Editor(s).

Following completion of the review process, accepted manuscripts will be forwarded to the Managing Editor for production. At this stage, the publication schedule will be confirmed with the Guest Editor(s). Prior to publication, authors will receive a PDF proof of their article for review and approval, with the opportunity to correct any errors.

The Guest Editor(s) will also be invited to provide an editorial introduction for the Special Issue.

As required for all other articles published in InterPore Journal, all authors contributing to a Special Issue must provide disclosures regarding any conflicts of interest or financial relationships. Any such disclosures relating to the Guest Editor(s) will likewise be published alongside the Special Issue.

All articles within the Special Issue will be published as Open Access and, unless otherwise specified, under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

For further information please contact:

Laura Lenz
Managing Editor InterPore Journal
Email: Laura.Lenz@InterPore.org