Special issues
Special Issues
Focused collections on a defined question in marine or ocean science, guest-edited by researchers working in that area and reviewed to the same standard as every other submission.
International Marine Science Journal welcomes proposals for special issues from researchers with relevant expertise. The requirements below are what a proposal needs to address and the terms a collection runs under.
Proposals
Proposing a special issue
A proposal is assessed on the scientific question, not on the number of manuscripts it might attract.
A collection works when it brings together research that answers a question better collectively than separately — a method whose limits are being tested across systems, a region under a pressure that several groups are measuring, a disagreement in the literature that assembled evidence could settle. It works less well as a general heading under which unrelated papers are gathered.
The question
What scientific question the collection addresses, why it is open, and what a reader would be able to conclude from the assembled papers that they could not conclude from any one of them.
Fit with the journal
Which core discipline, wider-coverage field or interdisciplinary marine-science question the collection addresses, and how it meets the scope set out on the Aims and Scope page. A collection cannot extend the journal's scope.
Guest editors
Names, affiliations, ORCID iDs and a short statement of the relevant expertise of each proposed guest editor, with any competing interests declared.
Article types and expected extent
Which article types the collection invites, and a realistic estimate of how many contributions are expected and from where.
Timetable
A proposed opening date, a closing date for submissions, and the period over which accepted papers would appear. Dates are agreed with the editorial office before a collection opens and are published only once agreed.
Send proposals to the editorial office at [email protected]. The office responds with an assessment and, where a collection proceeds, agrees the terms and the timetable in writing before anything is announced.
Oversight
Guest editors
- Appointment
- Guest editors are appointed by the journal on subject expertise and publication record, and are named on the collection.
- Responsibilities
- Guest editors invite contributions, assign reviewers, and make recommendations under the journal's editorial policies, following the same editor guidelines as the standing board.
- Competing interests
- A guest editor declares interests on appointment and keeps the declaration current. A guest editor does not handle a manuscript from their own group, institution or recent collaborators.
- Manuscripts from guest editors
- A guest editor may contribute to their own collection, but the manuscript is handled independently by a journal editor with no part in the collection, and the guest editor has no access to the reviewer identities or reports.
- Final authority
- The journal retains final editorial authority over every manuscript in a collection, including the decision to accept, to reject, or to publish outside the collection.
Standards
Review and standards
A special issue is a way of organizing publication, not a different route into the journal.
- Same assessment
- Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal — identically to manuscripts submitted outside a collection.
- Same review
- Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.
- What an invitation means
- An invitation to contribute to a collection is an invitation to submit. The manuscript is then assessed, reviewed and decided on exactly the same terms as one submitted outside a collection.
- Same requirements
- Manuscript preparation, ethics, permits and data-availability requirements are those in the Instructions for Authors and the Editorial Policies.
Terms
Charges, publication and closure
- Charges
- An article processing charge applies to accepted manuscripts in a collection on the same terms as any other accepted manuscript, and plays no part in the editorial decision. See the Article Processing Charges page.
- Publication
- Accepted papers are published when they are ready rather than held for the collection to complete, and are listed in the Archives with their registered DOI.
- Access and license
- Open access under CC BY 4.0, with copyright retained by the authors, as for every article in the journal.
- Closure
- A collection closes on its agreed date. The journal may extend, close early or discontinue a collection that has not attracted suitable submissions; manuscripts already under review are carried through to a decision and, if accepted, published as ordinary articles.
The journal accepts submissions throughout the year outside any collection. What it considers is set out on the Aims and Scope page, and the current invitation is on the Call for Papers page.