Special issues
Special Issues
Focused collections in Journal of Zoological Research, and how a researcher proposes one.
- Proposals welcome
- Same peer review
- ISSN 2694-2275
Propose a special issue
Proposing a collection
Journal of Zoological Research welcomes proposals for focused collections that address important questions in animal biology. Researchers with relevant expertise are invited to review the proposal requirements below and contact the editorial office.
A special issue works best where a question is active enough to draw several independent groups, and specific enough that the resulting articles speak to one another. A collection can be built around a taxon, a process, a method, a habitat or a question that crosses all four.
What a proposal contains
Proposal requirements
- Title and rationale
- A working title, and 300 to 500 words on the question the collection addresses, why it is timely, and what bringing the articles together would add.
- Scope alignment
- How the collection sits within the journal's remit. A special issue narrows the journal's attention for one collection; it does not change what the journal publishes.
- Guest editors
- The names, affiliations, ORCID iDs and relevant publications of the proposed guest editors, with a short statement of the expertise each brings. Two or three is usual.
- Expected contributions
- An indication of the groups likely to contribute and the range of article formats expected. Naming prospective authors helps the editors judge breadth; it commits nobody.
- Timetable
- A realistic schedule for the call, for submissions and for completion, agreed with the editors before the call opens.
Proposals go to [email protected], and are considered by the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial board.
Safeguards
How a collection is run
A special issue is held to the same standards as the rest of the journal, and the safeguards below are what make a collection worth publishing in.
Every manuscript submitted to a special issue goes through the journal's ordinary process. All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer 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.
Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal. Being invited to a collection is an invitation to submit, and the decision rests on the manuscript.
A guest editor who is an author on a manuscript in their own collection steps aside from it, and the manuscript is handled by a member of the journal's editorial board. The same applies where a guest editor has a recent collaboration, a shared institution or any other competing interest with the authors.
The article processing charge and its conditions are the same for a special issue as for any other submission, and the decision to publish is independent of it. The terms are on article processing charges.
Meanwhile
Submitting outside a collection
Regular submissions are accepted throughout the year, across every subject area the journal covers.
Submit a manuscript Read the scope
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The journal's standing invitation to authors.
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Preparation and submission guidance.
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Review, ethics, conflicts and corrections.
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Every issue the journal has published.