Special Issues and Guest Editing

JGTSS may organize thematic sections and special issues to examine a coherent social-science question from several perspectives. These projects extend the journal’s regular programme; they do not create a separate route to acceptance. The Surrounding Communications Research section is subject to the same academic, ethical and financial safeguards as other JGTSS content.

Proposal and appointment

A proposal explains the intellectual purpose, relationship to the journal’s scope, anticipated contribution types, planned timetable and proposed guest editors. It identifies participating organizations, financial support, conflicts and any conference or network from which papers may arise. The Co-Editors-in-Chief assess whether the topic has a research purpose and a sufficiently broad pool of potential contributors and independent reviewers.

Guest editors are appointed only after their expertise, identities, affiliations and willingness to follow the journal’s rules have been checked. A written brief specifies their authority, the permanent editor who supervises them and the escalation route for disagreements. Guest editors cannot delegate manuscript decisions to a conference organizer, commercial intermediary or unapproved assistant. Calls for papers identify the guest editors and explain the review process, applicable APC and any verified sponsorship or discount.

Submission and review

Every manuscript enters the normal submission system. Invitations, presentation at a conference and endorsement by a partner do not guarantee publication. Research articles, reviews and research case studies require at least two independent external reports under Peer Review. Editorial-only items must be labelled accordingly and cannot be counted or marketed as externally reviewed research.

The supervising permanent editor monitors reviewer selection, report quality and unusual submission patterns. A cluster of interdependent reviewers, repeated non-institutional identities, unexplained changes of authorship or nearly identical reports prompts a check before a decision. Guest editors disclose their relationships with contributors, including collaborative, supervisory and institutional links. Conflicted papers are transferred to an independent editor who controls the complete evaluation.

Limits and oversight

A guest editor may contribute to a special issue only when the manuscript is handled independently and the relationship is disclosed. Papers authored by guest editors must not exceed 25 percent of that special issue. The journal also checks its broader internal-authorship limit: research content with a journal editor, board member or journal reviewer among the authors must not exceed 25 percent in each of the latest two issues; if the journal changes to a true continuous-publication model, the applicable previous-calendar-year calculation is used.

The Co-Editors-in-Chief retain responsibility for all content and may halt a project, replace a guest editor or decline manuscripts if oversight or quality fails. Authors receive an explanation of changes affecting their submission. A thematic issue is released only when each included article has individually satisfied acceptance and production requirements. Concerns about guest editing can be sent to jgtsseditorialoffice@jandoopress.com for routing to an uninvolved academic editor.

Last updated: 16 September 2026