Estuaries and Coasts - Guidelines for Special Collections
The Co-Editors-in-Chief (Co-EICs) of Estuaries and Coasts invite proposals for collections of related articles to be considered for publication as either a special issue of the journal (15-20 articles, one issue per year) or as a collection. Estuaries and Coasts and the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation (CERF) are particularly interested in proposals that link to special sessions at CERF’s biennial conference, leveraging two important venues for communicating CERF science.
No specified template is required for submission of a collection proposal. However, the proposal should contain:
(1) a statement of purpose of and opportunity for the collection;
(2) a statement about how the overall issue and the component contributions would fit the scope of Estuaries and Coasts and how each submission would cohere to an integrated, hypothesis-based theme;
(3) the name(s) and biosketches of the guest editor(s) that would assemble authors and manuscripts;
(4) a list of the proposed submission titles and authors; and,
(5) although not required, accompanying draft abstracts, including a central hypothesis or question, are advised for each potential submission.
Proposals should be submitted to the Co-EICs (email addresses found at the end of this document).
Considerations for Proposers of a Special Collection
Review or Perspectives Articles
A separate Review Article is not required although an introductory or summary overview could also be included as a Perspective in Estuarine Science article (See Instructions for Authors). However, if the topic and findings are sufficiently unique or there has not been a comparable review in the literature in recent past, a review article is strongly encouraged. The review article would be handled by the Estuaries and Coasts Reviews Editor.
Review Management
All manuscripts are managed through the normal Estuaries and Coasts peer-review process and will be reviewed in the same manner as independent submissions. Submissions must adhere to the Estuaries and Coasts published definition and criteria for the aims and scope of the journal. Exactly the same criteria and rigor is applied to collection submissions as for any other original article submissions; there is absolutely no guarantee that all the proposed manuscripts will be accepted. An invitation to submit a paper to a special or theme issue does not imply automatic acceptance for publication. Some submissions will likely be rejected via the usual peer-review process; every submission must individually stand on its own merits. Because it is associated with a special issue/theme section does not qualify for any special treatment. You should understand that even the best intended collection submissions suffer some level of rejection, or at least extensive rounds of revision. In particular, in the case of English-as-second language prepared submissions, we also expect them to be thoroughly edited for English and perfectly readable by our Associate Editors and peer reviewers. Each of us will examine the manuscripts at the initial point of submission and reject without review if we perceive that the English language, grammar, etc. is unacceptable. Final editorial decisions will be made by the lead Co-EIC.
One of the Co-EiCs will coordinate all the reviews through our Associate Editors (AE). The submissions to the Estuaries and Coasts Managing Editor must originate from the authors (with the accompanying special issue/theme section cover letter), not the guest editor(s), and all subsequent review decisions and other exchanges from Estuaries and Coasts will be to the authors, as per the usual process for independent submissions. The guest editor(s) will not handle the peer review process.
Guest Editor Responsibilities
Given the number and complexity of collection manuscripts, the guest editor(s) are responsible for:
(1) organizing an ensemble of high quality, relatable manuscripts;
(2) conducting rigorous review of all manuscripts before submission to ESCO to guarantee that they meet ESCO scope, scientific, and English language standards; and,
(3) ensuring that the papers develop more than just a "sum of the parts" by relating their findings to not only each other but also the broader estuarine and coastal science literature.
The guest editor(s) will not be responsible for manuscript submission or peer review, but will provide a submission cover letter for their issue/section’s submission by the authors to Estuaries and Coasts), and keep the authors’ submissions and revisions on schedule. The number of guest editors may vary, depending on how they partition those responsibilities and how many submissions are proposed.
In addition it would be helpful for the Estuaries & Coasts peer review process for guest editors to organize their submission by the authors (NOT by the guest editors) over a prolonged period rather than in large groups, otherwise we and our Associate Editors will be swamped by many papers with the same topical content.
Timeframe
The typical timeline between special issue proposal submission and publication varies, depending on the number of submissions, the response of the AEs and peer reviewers and, perhaps most relevant, the number and extent of revisions required. The guest editors can reduce that timeline by keeping track of the authors’ progress to ensure that submissions and revisions occur in a timely manner. Accepted manuscripts will be published immediately online as they are ready for publication unless the collection, if sufficiently large, has been pre-designated for a special issue of the journal. The articles will simultaneously be published in the relevant Topical Collection on the journal's website.
Contact
Proposers and potential guest editors of Estuaries & Coasts collections are encouraged to contact Co-EICs Paul Montagna (paul.montagna@tamucc.edu) or Linda A. Deegan (ldeegan@woodwellclimate.org) for further guidance.
Estuaries & Coasts online:
https://www.springer.com/environment/journal/12237
Submission and Peer Review Website:
http://www.editorialmanager.com/esco