Call for special issues

 

HOW TO SUGGEST A SPECIAL ISSUE?

Special Issues are an important component of BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH AND THERAPY. They deal with more focused topics with high current interest falling within the scope of the journal in which they are published. They should be organized by recognized experts in the area and attract articles of the highest quality.

Special Issue proposals are welcome at any time during the year, and should be submitted to managingeditor@bmrat.org. OR Online Submission at here

Proposals for Special Issues should be submitted by the Lead Guest Editor of the Special Issue and should include the following:

 -       The journal for which the Special Issue is intended

-       A suggested title for the Special Issue (should not exceed 10 words)

-       Proposed Aims and Scope, giving an overview of the Special Issue’s intended focus and a list of the topics to be covered

-       A list of Guest Editors who will join the Lead Guest Editor in managing the Special Issue, including their names, emails, affiliations, and a short biography (one paragraph) of each of the Guest Editors

 

A proposed timeline and schedule which includes:

-       Deadline for submission (6 months from the initial Call-for-Papers)

-       First round of review (3 months after submission deadline)

-       Tentative publication date (3 months after the first round of review)

 

All proposals are subject to approval by the journal following a discussion of the proposed Special Issue among the journal’s Editorial Board. If approved, a Call-for-Papers for the Special Issue will be issued and posted online.

 

HOW A SPECIAL ISSUE IS PUBLISHED?

Special Issues are made freely available online to all interested readers leading to the maximum possible dissemination and recognition within the scientific community. Special Issues can be viewed and downloaded on the individual article level, but are also available in an edited volume format as a single PDF published with a custom cover.

 

THE GUEST EDITORS’ MAIN EDITORIAL TASK

The Guest Editors’ main editorial task is

-       to help the editorial team to select the reviewers for all submitted manuscripts for this special issue

-       to read and give the final decision for all submitted manuscripts for this special issue based on reviewer’s comments

 

To ensure the success of the Special Issue, we generally aim to have over 10 submissions, which allows for a higher rejection rate and thus produces a stronger collection of accepted manuscripts. If the Special Issue receives less than 5 accepted submissions, we will unfortunately have to move the papers to the regular section of the journal.

 

THE EDITORIAL PROCESSING

Once a manuscript is submitted to a Special Issue, it will be checked by the journal’s editorial office to ensure that it is suitable to go through the normal peer review process. Once this is done, the manuscript will be sent to the Lead Guest Editor provided that there is no potential conflict of interest with the submitting authors.

In case there is no conflict of interest, the Lead Guest Editor will need to read over the article and if it is of reasonable quality, he/she will need to assign it either to himself/herself or to one of the Guest Editors.

The Guest Editor handling the manuscript will then need to select the reviewers, and send information to editorial team. Managing editor will send these manuscripts to the introduced reviewers. Reviewers are then expected to submit their reports within a maximum of 3 weeks. Once the review reports have been received, the Guest Editor will need to make an editorial decision of either:

 

    Publish Unaltered

    Consider after Minor Changes

    Consider after Major Changes

    Reject

 

This decision will be sent to managing editor; then the managing editor will send this decision to author(s).

The peer-review process is single blinded; that is, the reviewers know who the authors of the manuscript are, but the authors do not have access to the information of who the peer reviewers are.