1. Structure

Special Issues are usually formed of Research articles (along with an Editorial) although you are welcome to incorporate other article types into the special issue/section.

An issue can comprise of 5-10 articles including the Editorial article. Further details on PPP article types and their associated requirements is available on the ‘Information for authors’ page on this site.

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2. Proposals

Content

• Focus: Please explain the focus of the Special Issue and why you think it will fit in PPP. If the papers were presented at an event, please provide details of this.
• List of articles: A list of proposed articles will then need to be provided. Please provide the following details for each article:
  • Title
  • Name and institution of each author (please mark the corresponding author)
  • Abstract (500 words)
• Peer review: The peer review process will be managed by special issue editors and through our submission portal – further details about this are available under the ‘Editors’ section on this page. Please provide details on how you will recruit your referees, considering that each paper needs at least two reviews to be completed. The PPP editorial team will ensure that the review process meets requirements.
• Schedule of publication: Provide dates to indicate when you expect:
  • Full versions of articles to be submitted 
  • How long the review process will take
  • When you expect final versions to be ready for publication
• Previous experience: please provide details of any previous experience of editing Special Issues/Sections for other journals. If relevant, please also include any prior editorial experience, for example, of books.

Submitting your proposal 

All proposals should be submitted using the online MS submission form. 

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3. Editors

We expect the following of Special Issue editors:

• They are an appropriate and accredited professional within the academic or research community.
• They have appropriate subject matter expertise and experience to lead the proposed Special Issue.
• They must disclose any potential or actual conflicts of interest related to the Special Issue.
• They have the responsibility to commission content for the proposed issue. This would be between 5-10 articles, including an Editorial article authored by them.
• Promote the special issue within their networks or social media accounts and encourage contributing authors to do the same.

Peer review process

We require that Special Issues are managed just as rigorously as other issues managed by PPP managing editors and will check to ensure that this is happening.

We expect that the peer review process is managed in the same appropriate and timely way as any other article submitted to the journal. This includes selecting an appropriate number of reviewers who have suitable expertise in the field and receiving quality and in-depth reviews, as well as managing the review process on our submission portal.

The PPP peer-review policy is available on the ‘Publishing information’ section of this website.

Submitted papers should be evaluated for their content and without bias, and confidentiality must be maintained in relation to submitted articles and communication with reviewers.

Use of AI

Papers or sections of papers submitted for review must not be submitted into a generative AI tool.

Papers authored by the Guest Editor

The Special Issue should not include more than one paper from the guest editor, and they should not be involved in decisions regarding their own paper or papers where there is another conflict of interest. Peer reviews should be managed with the same principles.

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4. Authors

Authors contributing to a Special Issue are expected to follow the usual guidelines for PPP article submissions as found on the ‘Information for authors’ page.

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5. Submission

Articles to be considered for publication in a PPP Special Issue should be submitted through our submission portal which we use to manage submissions and the peer-review process.

For easy identification, we ask that authors add a note in the ‘Comments for Editor’ box on the portal stating that their paper is to be considered as part of the relevant special issue [state name of special issue if known or name of guest editor].

Guest Editors will be granted Editorial access to manage submissions through the peer-review process.

Important publishing note

The final decision on whether the Special Issue will be accepted will be made by the PPP journal’s managing editors.

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6. Queries about your paper

All queries about articles or the journal can be directed to the editors by email at ppp-online@shu.ac.uk.

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7. Journal policies and guidance

All policies, statements and journal information (e.g. publication fees) can be found on the Publishing information page of this website.