SPECIAL ISSUE GUIDELINES

a) the quality of the individual papers submitted,
b) the extent to which the proposed Special Issue as a whole makes an original, coherent and creative contribution to the field,
c) the extent to which the proposal stimulates wide-ranging debate and cutting-edge discussion of a topical issue or political issue that appeals to a broad audience in the UK and internationally,
d) the extent to which the proposal seeks to demonstrate the essential utility of political science through enhancing understanding and dialogue both within the political science profession, across disciplinary subfields and outside
the scholarly community.

• Full contact details and a short biography of the Guest Editor(s);
• A proposed title for the Special Issue;
• A clear frame or rationale which includes: the theoretical framework and empirical content of the Special Issue; its relationship to existing literature and how the contribution will advance knowledge in politics; claim to be original in approach and/or thinking; saliency to politics field. We would expect this rationale should to be around 800-1,000 words in length;
• A list of contributors: include institutional affiliations and short biography and confirmation of their commitment to the Issue;
• Abstracts for each paper (350 words max each);
• Provide details of the origin of the proposal, e.g., a workshop, conference, research project etc.;
• The current stage of development of the proposed issue. This should include clear milestones for its completion such as a) submission of first drafts by individual authors to Guest Editors; b) submission of revised papers to Guest Editors following two external reviews per paper; c) submission of the draft Special Issue to the PSR Editorial team for collective external review purposes prior to the final decision;
• The maximum number of contributions allowed in a Special Issue is 7, including the introduction.

• As a guest editor, you will be a part of a whole editorial process, a major aim of which is to provide an audience with a high-quality research publication. We expect you will have read and reviewed all papers at least once before they are submitted to our editorial system, ScholarOne.
• You should use your best judgment regarding the quality and coherence of each paper and ensure that each contribution adds to the theme of the Special Issue in a clear and meaningful way.
• If a paper does not meet these standards, please do not submit the paper to our editorial system.
• We expect you to remind authors early and often of editorial deadlines and follow up if necessary.
• PSR Lead Editors reserve the right to reject any paper submitted to the Special Issue should it not meet PSR quality standards or if it does not constructively contribute to the Special Issue as a whole.

• A Special Issue needs to have a minimum of four papers and an introduction to the Issue written by the Guest Editors that pass external peer review and are approved by the Lead Editors.
• Should the Special Issue fall below the minimum of four papers, we may publish some of the papers in a regular issue of the journal.
• The maximum number of contributions allowed in a Special Issue is 7, including the introduction.

• The introduction to the Special Issue should be a presentation of the overarching theme of the Special Issue.
• It should be limited to 3000 words and should outline the theme, and make a case about the perspective adopted in the Issue to address that theme.
• The overarching aim of the introduction should be to explain how the collected papers work together to address the theme in a specific way.
• The introduction will be reviewed by the editors.
• The introduction should be submitted to the Scholar One system, once all other articles of the issue have been accepted.

Guest Editors submit a detailed outline of the Special Issue
You can contact members of our editorial team or send it at psr@brunel.ac.uk

Abstracts for all papers are delivered
Due date: max. 4 weeks after submitting the outline

Editor comments on abstracts returned
Due date: max. 8 weeks after delivering abstracts

Guest Editors submit 3 suggestions for external reviewers per paper
Due date: max. 12 weeks after receiving editor comments on abstracts

All papers submitted to Scholar One editorial review system
Due date: max. 12 weeks after receiving editor comments on abstracts

A review process and author revisions
Due dates can vary depending on reviewers’ and authors’ availability. It can take up to 12 months, or longer if agreed on with authors and a guest editor.

A production process, including final corrections, proofs, and deciding on the final deadline of a publication.
Due dates can vary depending on the publisher’s capacity and authors’availability.

Online publication
An online release of the section’s articles usually takes place a few months before a printed issue’s publication

A printed publication

Issue’s promotion
We promote the issue and separate articles throughout the whole quarter until the new issue is published. More: Impact and Promotion.

• As Guest Editors, we ask that you make recommendations for at least three potential reviewers for each paper.
• These recommendations should be sent to the PSR editor or at psr@brunel.ac.uk when the paper is submitted to our editorial system.
• Editors will select one of the three suggested reviewers as well as a second reviewer chosen by the editorial team.
• This system will ensure the independent review of each paper in the issue. Please keep in mind that suggested reviewers should have no conflicts of interest with the author(s) or with you as Guest Editors.

• Each paper will be submitted to our online editorial system (Scholar One).
• Further details about the submission process can be found here.

• The PSR editorial team is committed to a mission of research dissemination (more: Impact and promotion).
• Each article will be promoted for 3 months after the issue’s publication until the next issue will be published.
• If authors want to highlight some aspects of their papers, they can also provide up to two tweet suggestions per paper.
• If you have Tweets about the Special Issue as a whole or have pictures or special media corresponding to the issue, please let us know.
• These tweets will be used to promote the issue on the PSR Twitter feed @PolStudiesRev.
• Please also indicate if any papers would be suited to a blog format.
• We will then invite the author(s) of that paper to write for the PSA or PSR blogs.
• This will also help promote the issue to a wider audience.

• Each paper has a maximum word count of 8000 (including references).
• Papers over this limit will be asked to revise.
• We expect proofread versions of each paper before they are submitted to our editorial system for external review.