About Conferences
This guide explains what conference special issues are, how they can be structured, what organizing committees are responsible for, and how conference submissions are expected to be managed.
What is a conference special issue?
A conference special issue is a curated collection of peer-reviewed papers presented at an academic conference and published together within the journal. Although the collection has its own theme and organizing committee, submissions still follow the journal's standard peer-review and publication standards.
Benefits
Global Visibility
Conference proceedings reach a wider audience through indexing alongside regular journal issues.
Community Building
Conferences bring together active researchers and scholars around a shared research frontier.
Fast-Track Publication
Accepted papers are typically published on a streamlined timeline aligned with the conference dates.
Standard Review Quality
Papers remain subject to the same independent review standards as regular submissions.
Proposal essentials
A conference title and scope statement that clearly fits the journal's remit.
Proposed organizing committee details, affiliations, and relevant expertise.
A rationale describing the topic, significance, expected submission types, and target community.
A realistic timeline, venue or hosting plan, and outreach strategy where applicable.
Organizing committee responsibilities
Organizing committees are expected to uphold journal scope, confidentiality, fair review, conflict disclosure, and publication ethics. They must not pressure authors for irrelevant citations or participate in decisions where conflicts exist.
Committee duties
Help frame the conference theme, tracks, and keywords.
Identify suitable reviewers and help promote legitimate calls for papers.
Support manuscript triage and recommend appropriate reviewers where requested.
Work with the editorial office to keep the conference timeline rigorous and inclusive.
Promotion and outreach
Successful conferences usually require active promotion. Organizing committees may promote the call for papers through direct outreach, academic networks, events, mailing lists, societies, or institutionally appropriate channels while maintaining scholarly neutrality and inclusiveness.
Editorial procedure
Conference paper submissions should follow the same editorial standards as regular submissions. Where an organizing committee member is an author, or a conflict of interest exists, an alternative editor or editorial board member should oversee the process and the final decision.