Special Issue Proposals

Instructions for Prospective Special Issue Editors

Submitting a special issue proposal

Prospective editors of special issues should submit a proposal to the NJAS editorial board. Proposals should be submitted, as with all articles, via the OJS platform. Choose “Special Issue Proposals” as the section for submissions.

The NJAS editorial board will consider the proposal and make a decision within one month or less. We will contact you with the decision and any comments or questions we might have.

Contents of a special issue proposal

The special issue proposal should be 1–4 pages long and should include the following information:

• Working title of the proposed special issue
• Editors of the proposed special issue
• Summary of the special issue’s topics, aims, novelty/significance, and relevance to NJAS (the summary can be organized according to the authors’ preferences, as long as all relevant information is included)
• Anticipated papers/authors/topics and/or a call for papers
• Expected number of contributions (this can be an estimate, of course). We require at least four full-length articles; otherwise, we may publish the contributions as a special section within a regular journal issue. If you aim for a full special issue, we recommend starting off with more than four planned articles, as it is not unusual for one or more authors to drop out over the process.
• Proposed timeline, including (at least)
• Submission and acceptance of abstracts
• Deadline for submission of articles
• Review 
• Revisions
• (Light) copyediting and reference check
• Publication date
• Funding available from the special issue editors, if any.

Publication timeline considerations

Please be realistic in allowing enough time for papers to be submitted and reviewed: these processes often take longer than expected. Allow at least four months for review, while aiming to have the review process completed more quickly. 

NJAS publishes four issues per year, with publication dates in March, June, September, and December.

Special issues that do not meet their proposed deadlines will forfeit publication priority, which might entail significant delays. The most important deadlines in the process are submission and review deadlines; if they are not met, we will likely deprioritize the special issue. We need sufficient time to plan for a regular issue if special issues are not ready in time.

NJAS needs at least two months prior to the publication date for the copyediting and formatting processes (plan for more if the formatting is complex or other issues are anticipated).  

Division of labour and funding

If a proposal for a special issue is accepted, NJAS can fund (light) copyediting, reference check, and layout for up to four articles, plus an introduction. For longer proposed special issues, please contact the editors-in-chief to discuss funding possibilities.

As a general rule, NJAS can publish a maximum of 1–2 special issues in lieu of regular issues per year. After that, special issues may be published outside our regular publication schedule, but funding and timing issues will have to be agreed on with the editors-in-chief.

Editors of special issues are responsible for the editorial process, including finding reviewers for articles and making the final decisions on article publication.

NJAS provides access to our OJS platform for the review process; completely free, permanent open-access to all the articles; and copyediting and layout services for up to four articles. We can also consult with the special-issue editors on particular issues, but we cannot take over responsibility for the review process.

The NJAS editorial board reserves the right to reject special issues at any stage if severe quality issues arise; however, this right will only be invoked in exceptional circumstances after the initial proposal has been accepted.

Special issue editors are expected to adhere to the NJAS code of ethics.  Papers should also conform to NJAS submission guidelines and  formatting and reference guidelines. We can only publish special issues that follow these guidelines.