Special Issue Guidelines

Special Issues are an important component of The Scientific World Journal. They deal with more focused topics with high current interest. 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 special.issues@hindawi.com.

Proposals for Special Issues should include the following:

• The subject area 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 3-5 Guest Editors who will be managing the Special Issue, including their names, emails, affiliations, and a short biography (one paragraph) of each of the Guest Editors
• A proposed deadline for submission (3-6 months from the initial Call-for-Papers)

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.

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. They are also made available in print for all readers interested in a print edition.

To ensure the success of the Special Issue, we generally aim to have over 20 submissions, which allows for a higher rejection rate and thus produces a stronger collection of accepted manuscripts. If the Special Issue receives less than 10 submissions, we will unfortunately have to move the papers to the regular section of the journal.

The Scientific World Journal employs a collaborative Editorial Model in which the Guest Editors work together in order to review submitted manuscripts and reach a final publication decision within an average of 4 weeks from the time of submission. The following is the editorial workflow that every manuscript submitted to a Special Issue during the course of the peer-review process.

The entire editorial workflow is performed using the online Manuscript Tracking System. Once a manuscript is submitted for publication, the manuscript is 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 is sent to all the Guest Editors provided that there are no potential conflicts of interest with the submitting authors. If there is a conflict of interest such that the Guest Editors cannot handle any of the submissions to the special issue, the manuscript is sent to a number of Editorial Board Members based on the subject of the manuscript, the availability of the Editors, and the lack of any potential conflicts of interest with the submitting authors.

The Guest Editors will have around two weeks to provide either a recommendation for the publication of the manuscript, along with a written commentary detailing any changes that the authors can make to improve their manuscript before final publication, or a written critique of why the manuscript should not be published.

If the majority of the editorial evaluations that are received by the end of this first round of review recommend the manuscript be rejected, the manuscript will be rejected. If all the editorial evaluations that are received recommend that the manuscript be accepted for publication, the manuscript will be accepted. Otherwise, all the received editorial evaluations will be communicated to all of the Editors who participated in the first round of the review process. Each Editor will be given an additional week to review the feedback of the other Editors and to either confirm or revise their earlier editorial recommendations. If the majority of the editorial evaluations that are received by the end of this second round of review recommend the manuscript be accepted for publication, the manuscript will be accepted. Otherwise, the manuscript will be rejected.

The editorial model is designed to provide fast peer review for each manuscript while at the same time ensuring that only manuscripts that are both rigorous and provide a useful contribution to their field of research are accepted for publication.

The names of the Guest Editors who recommended the publication of a manuscript will be published on each manuscript. For those manuscripts that are handled by members of the Editorial Board, the names of the Editors who recommended the publication of the manuscript will be published alongside the manuscript.