Top tips on preparing a successful Special Collection proposal

By Gordon Mallarkey (PhD), Managing Editor, Special Collections

Special Collections have become an essential part of modern journal publishing. They facilitate the timely collation of complementary articles in important areas of research. The key to writing a winning proposal is to make sure it contains all the information that the Journal Editorial Team needs to evaluate and accept it for launch. Here is some practical advice on how to prepare each of the key elements of your proposal.

Important Notes:

1.       Your full proposal will be evaluated by the journal’s Editorial Team, so it must meet their high standards to be accepted

2.       Make sure you complete all items on the proposal form fully and accurately. Any errors, omissions or ambiguities are likely to lead to rejection

3.       Look at the following pages on the journal’s website to help you:

• Journal ‘Aims and scope’: your topic must be within the journal’s aims and scope

• ‘Special Collections Index’: a list of published Special Collections

• ‘Open Special Collections’: a list of current open collections.

Your details:

You must complete all the requested fields so that the Editorial Team is satisfied that you are suitable for the role. In particular:

• Your CV/resume must be accurate and up to date

• Email address: use your institutional email if you have one. If you do not have one, you may use a private email – ideally one that you have used recently for your publications

• We will do a verification check to prove that you work at your stated institution. The simplest way for you to provide this is to supply a link to your university website that states your position, or the position of your supervisor/co-guest editor. If this is not available, you may arrange for your supervisor to send an email/document that verifies your position

• If you have an ORCID page, please supply it. If not, please create one here: ORCID. Additionally, please supply a link to your google scholar page or a similar public resource. Your short biography should be one paragraph only and comprise a short introduction and brief details about your research career and achievements.  

The title of your proposed Special Collection:

Take your time to create a novel and specific title for your proposed Special Collection. It should be based on your area of expertise and be of topical interest to the Editorial Team, researchers, and readers of the journal.

Proposed Aims and Scope:

This section of your proposal is very important. You need to convince the Editorial Team that your Special Collection is of special interest and will lead to submission of manuscripts by researchers worldwide:

• It must be your original idea and in your own words (we check for plagiarism)

• If it is unclear or incomplete, it will be rejected

• Provide a short background followed by the specific scope of your intended collection and what it is designed to achieve

• Minimum word count: 150 words.

List of the topics to be covered:

This section will help the Editorial Team evaluate the full scope of your Special Collection. Please provide a list of 5-10 sub-topics that cover all aspects within your main topic. The title of your topic and this list of subtopics will be used in ‘Call-for-Papers’ initiatives; thus, it needs to appeal to all researchers in this field of study.  

A list of authors you have already approached:

If you provide us with a list of prospective authors and article titles, it will show us that you have spent time thinking about this project and will continue to help us publish a high-quality set of articles on your specific topic.

Co-Guest Editors:

There are two situations where co-guest editors are required:

1.       Some Editors always want more than one Guest Editor on a Special Collection

2.       You should always suggest a co-guest editor if you do not have prior editor experience or an extensive academic network (e.g. you do not have many recent publications, you do not have many publications with citations (a lower h-index) and/or you are an early career researcher).

Note the following points:

• For some journals, the co-Guest Editors must be from different institutions and countries than yourself. For other journals, it may be OK to suggest someone more senior in your research team or a more senior colleague at the same institution – check the ‘Special Collections Index’ and the ‘Open Special Collections’ pages of the journal website so you can see what the Editorial team expects

• Co-Guest Editors should have relevant subject knowledge and a publication history related to the Special Collection topic

• Co-Guest Editors need to be able to provide a CV, institutional email address and be listed on their institution’s website (i.e. similar to the ‘Your details’ section above)

• You should contact potential co-Guest Editors before submitting your proposal to make sure they will work with you on your Special Collection if it is accepted.
  

When you are ready to submit your proposal, head to this page.