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 which is submitted to a Special Issue will undergo the same review process as all other content submitted to the journal, and it will be published in the same format and layout. Such content, as long as it fulfils the guidelines set by Medline/PubMed, will in the future be indexed once our 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.

  • 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.

Our guidelines are based on those published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). Adherence to these guidelines ensures that the Journal’s reputation, integrity, and independence are not damaged in any way, and that the Special Issue will in the future also be successfully indexed in Medline/PubMed once that milestone has been achieved by the Journal.

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. Selection of Guest Editor(s) is made by the Editor-in-Chief.

  • Proposed title along with a brief description of the topic and why is it important.

  • A list of potential contributors to the special issue and their subjects.

  • For conference proceedings or symposiums, information on where and when the conference/symposium will be or was held.

  • Should a Sponsor be involved in any way, the role of the sponsor, including any additional resources such as editorial support which are being provided.

  • A brief timeline: start of accepting contributions, submission deadline, planned date of content delivery and desired publication date.

The proposal will be reviewed by the journal Editors. For submission, the Special Issue articles must be prepared according to the Authors Instructions for the journal and submitted via the Journal’s website. The article should be submitted as a “Special Issue Paper” and the title of the Special Issue should be given in the cover letter. Specifics regarding the review and production process follow.

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 chosen Guest Editor(s) to then contact the potential contributors and invite them to submit their papers. The Managing Editor of the Journal will work with the Guest Editor(s), making sure all efforts are coordinated and that the Guest Editor(s) have the needed support.

When manuscripts are received, they will undergo the same process as all other submitted manuscripts (this includes verifying that they comply with journal style and informing the EIC). If no issues are found, then the chosen Guest Editor(s) will be informed, and the review process will be managed by them.

The decision on acceptance/revision/rejection of each manuscript will be made by the Editor-in-Chief based on the recommendation given by the Guest Editor(s).

Upon completion of the review process, accepted manuscripts will be forwarded to the Managing Editor of the journal, and they will be prepared for publishing. At this time, the production schedule will also be discussed and verified with the Guest Editor(s). Prior to publication, the authors will receive a pdf-proof of their article which they can then check for correctness, and if necessary, make corrections.

The Guest Editor(s) will also be asked to provide an Editorial for the Special Issue.

As required for all other articles which are published in InterPore Journal, it will be necessary for all authors of the Special Issue to include disclosures regarding any conflicts or financial relationships that may exist. Any financial relationship or conflicts of interest that exist for the Guest Editor(s) will also be published alongside the Special Issue.

All articles for the Special Issue will be published as Open Access, and unless otherwise specified, under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial-No-Derivatives 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