A Special Issue is a curated collection of peer-reviewed articles organized around a focused theme and led by Guest Editor(s) in collaboration with the journal's editorial team.
Through the Special Issue Open Access Partnership, a sponsoring organization supports the development, peer review administration, production, and dissemination of an entire collection.
Editorial decisions remain independent and are made through the journal’s standard peer review process. This enables contributing authors whose articles are accepted to publish Open Access without individual APCs.
The Issue Publication Fee supports:
For Institutions and Research Networks
For Authors
For the Field
Ideal Use Cases
Submissions to a Special Issue undergo the journal's standard peer review process; Are evaluated using the same criteria as regular submissions; and must meet the journal's editorial standards and publication requirements.
Final publication decisions rest with the journal’s editorial leadership and are made independently of the sponsoring organization, Guest Editor(s), or any funding arrangement, in accordance with the journal’s standard peer review and publication ethics policies.
Support for a Special Issue does not guarantee acceptance of any individual manuscript. Some submissions may be rejected following peer review or editorial assessment, and the final number of published articles may be fewer than the target collection size.
The Issue Publication Fee supports the editorial, review, production, and publication processes required to develop and publish the Special Issue as a whole. As these services are provided regardless of individual editorial outcomes, the fee is not contingent upon the number of accepted articles and is therefore non-refundable.