Guest Editor Guidelines

Inscriptions accepts proposals for Special Issues. Such proposals are considered by the journal’s Editorial Board. Serving as a Guest Editor offers you the chance to expand your network and enhance your influence among professions, stay up-to-date in your field, develop your editorial skills, and gain recognition from hiring panels. In this document, you will learn more about the role of Guest Editor and the kind of support Guest Editors can expect from us.

Special Issues

Special Issues are collections of 5 to 10 first-rate articles on a specific topic that is current, overlooked, or contributes significantly to the field. Special Issues can also be occasioned by conferences, symposia, or the anniversary of a key figure or event.

Role descriptors

Guest Editors

Identify/invite authors to the Special Issue.
Manage Peer Review of submissions (with support from the journal/publisher).
Decide on the ordering of articles, author an Editorial, and select a Cover Image for the Special Issue.
Participate in disseminating information about the Special Issue after publication.

Expected workload

The workload will vary based on the quantity and quality of essays you will handle. Expect an average workload of 4-5 hours of work, which includes tasks such as identifying authors, reading essays, selecting reviewers, reviewing comments, managing revisions, and offering editorial suggestions to our Editor-in-Chief. The special issue project is estimated to demand approximately 60-70 hours of work distributed over 9 months. Be advised that the majority of the tasks are concentrated within the timeframe spanning from October to December. Collaborating with 1 or 2 co-Guest Editors can make the workload more manageable.

Timelines

For Special Issues we generally advise this timetable:

January 31: Deadline to submit Special Issue proposals.
Late February: Decision on Special Issue by Inscriptions’s Editorial Board.
April 15: First CfP issued by Inscriptions and Guest Editors.
September 15: Deadline for proposals.
October 15: Deadline for full-text essays.
Mid-November: General deadline for peer reviews.
Mid-December: All revisions completed, editing complete.
January 15: Publication.

Proposals

Include the following in your Special Issue proposal:

The name, contact information, and CV for each Guest Editor.
A topic statement (“aims and scope”) of the special issue and a short rationale justifying its relevance.
A numbered list of articles with the submitting/lead author’s name, institution, and email address as well as the full article title.
An indication of the division of the manuscripts between you and your co-Guest Editors (i.e. who is going to handle which papers), if relevant.
If there are any special formatting requirements or files required for the submissions.

Peer Review

All academic essays published by Inscriptions undergo double-blind peer review before publication.

You are expected to handle the peer review process within the editorial system (OJS) on time. Please ensure that all communication with authors and reviewers takes place within OJS as “private” email conversations outside this system can later become matters of dispute. We will advise on how to properly handle timelines to make this work.
Guest Editors can review essays when the essay (1) has not been authored by themselves, (2) is not authored by someone they know (i.e. the review is double-blind), (3) there is no conflict of interest. The Editor-in-Chief handles reviews of essays authored by Guest Editors.
Once at least 2 independent (blind) reviewers have submitted their recommendation Guest Editors are authorised to recommend rejection, revision, or acceptance of each submission. Final decisions will be made by the Editor-in-Chief after evaluating the guest editor’s recommendation in light of the quality of the external review comments.

Criteria for submission and review are available from our Editorial Policies page. Make sure you have read and understood all our policies, including our statement on Publication Ethics. Our author guidelines are available on this page.

OJS

Open Journal Systems (OJS) is Inscriptions’ system for submission, review, and publication. Once invited, Guest Editors will be assigned the appropriate role and given relevant permissions to shepherd submissions through review. The publisher offers a 1-hour online training session and will further assist you via email should you encounter any problems.

Do not hesitate to get in touch with any questions or comments to inscriptions@tankebanen.no.