Insider tips: How to submit a successful Special Collection proposal to Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment (TCRT)

By Jennifer Lovick

Successful completion of a Special Collection as a Guest Editor is a significant achievement. It is also a wonderful opportunity to learn about the editorial process. Being a Guest Editor will help to reinforce and grow your research network.

Completing a Special Collection can be a time-consuming experience and a difficult process to initiate. The Technology in Cancer Research & Treatment (TCRT) editor team supports Guest Editors from start to finish with tools, guidelines, and dedicated promotions via email and social media. To help prepare to be a Guest Editor, here are some tips for taking the initial step with our journal, preparing the Special Collection proposal.

Choosing a topic

Focus on topics in your area of expertise that are of current interest. These may be topics you have read about recently or seen at a conference. A good Special Collection includes content that is of current interest to researchers in your field.

The topic should also be one that you are familiar with and related in some way to your current research. For TCRT, the topic should relate to research on the detection, diagnosis, prognosis, and/or treatment of cancer. Read more here about the journal’s aims and scope. If there are any questions or doubts about a topic you are considering, you can submit a partially completed proposal to get the conversation started with our editorial team, or email us.

Crafting the Aims & Scope

While TCRT does publish a wide range of content relating to detection, diagnosis, prognosis, and/or treatment of cancer, the journal places special emphasis on topics relating to new technologies, advances in fundamental fields such as radiotherapy or diagnostic imaging, and development of new tools or approaches to improve existing approaches to detecting, diagnosis, and treating cancer.

The aim of a Special Collection should be to promote discussion and awareness of a particular topic. The topic should be broad enough to have wide appeal, but not too broad. Similarly, the topic should not be too narrow. A helpful way to get a sense of this is to see how many articles have been published in the past few years. If there are many thousands, the topic might be too broad. If there are only a few dozen, the topic might be too narrow.  You can also read through our previously published collections to get a sense of what has already worked.

When writing the aims and scope for your collection proposal, you should include enough detail to explain what the topic is and why it is important. However, it should also be concise and clear, so your message is well understood by potential authors and readers of your collection. You may also consider adding 3-5 potential sub-topics you would like to see be part of the collection. This helps to give clarity to potential authors when considering your collection for their research.

Working with co-Guest Editors

Being the sole Guest Editor for a Special Collection can be a daunting task. Guest Editors are involved in identifying and inviting authors and making recommendations on manuscripts after peer review.      To help ensure the success of your Special Collection, you might consider bringing together a team of colleagues that can support the building of your collection by working as co-Guest Editors. Working with your Guest Editor team helps to

1. Reduce the time spent by each Guest Editor

2. Increase the diversity of articles if each Guest Editor can assist in selecting and inviting authors

Generally, it is best to work with co-Guest Editors that are colleagues that also work in the same field as you. If you are a more junior researcher, you should consider working with more senior colleagues, or, when relevant, your supervisor or advisor. Many times, more senior researchers know who relevant experts are, and may even know them personally. This can really help with securing authors for your collection. If you decide to work with co-Guest Editors, be sure to include as much information about this as possible in your proposal.

Identifying potential authors

Having potential authors already identified or even confirmed can greatly enhance your success as the Guest Editor and the success of your collection. Sage will support you in looking for potential paper submissions through our own promotions, so you aren’t alone in this, but leveraging your academic network and the network of your co-Guest Editors is always the best place to start. Focus on colleagues that conduct research that is related to your collection topic.

Another option is to discover who works on research related to your collection topic. You can look at recent conference speakers, authors of recently published articles (for example, within the last 1-2 years), or even do a web search to identify faculty that publish in the area.

Even if your proposal has not been submitted or approved by the journal editorial team, you can reach out to potential authors to gauge their interest. They may agree to commit to your collection in advance as well. While having a list of confirmed or interested authors is an advantage for your proposal, it is not essential.

Submitting the proposal

The Special Collection proposal form is a centralized form used by all of Sage Publishing’s Open Access journals. The form contains a mixture of required and optional fields, relating to who you are and what your proposed Special Collection is about, as well as your publication record and relevant research history.          

This information will help the journal editorial team to decide about the appropriateness of your proposal. The more fields you complete, the quicker a decision can be made. Many of these fields will also be used to create a page dedicated to your collection and in our ongoing promotions for your collection if your proposal is accepted. Providing this information up front will help create a smooth experience for launching your collection.

For more general tips, you can check out this blog post.

To get more information about the role of the Guest Editor and to submit your proposal, go here.

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