Guidelines for Special Issues
JCAL welcomes proposals for Special Issues.
General Information
These may concern topics in the area of computer-assisted learning that have a distinctive coherence and which are judged to be of contemporary interest or deserving of urgent thematic overview. Sometimes such collections arise from oral presentations at symposia or conferences. Sometimes they may be solicited individually by proposing editors. Normally, proposing editor(s) will write a short introductory piece as preface to the collection. Individual papers may take the form of a review, a theoretical position or an empirical report. Normal high standards of peer review will be applied to all submissions that comprise special issues. Contributing authors to Special Issues should have their attention drawn to this web page by the proposing editor(s)
All correspondance relating to the submission and management of such collections is normally handled by the journal's Deputy Editor.
Specific advice on whether a set of papers fits expectations for a Special Issue can be found here.
Richard Joiner
Psychology Department
Bath University
Bath, BA2 7AY
UK
Tel: +44 (0)1225 384373
Fax: +44 (0)1225 462508
Email: r.joiner@bath.ac.uk
Submission of a proposal
Please send by post or email attachment a document to Richard Joiner outlining the theme of the proposed special issue and details of the intended content. This should include the following
- A short title conveying the thematic concern of the collection
- Names, titles, institutional affiliations and addresses of the proposing editor(s)
- A summary of about 500 words making a case for gathering this particular set of papers
- An indication of the origin of these papers - a symposium, conference, or by special invitation
- For each proposed paper, a title, authors details, and an abstract of approximately 250 words
- A submission timetable
Care should be taken to ensure that all proposed contributors have agreed to present a paper and that they are aware of the timetable. Submissions should not be made until these assurances have been obtained. The timetable to manage submission should refer to the following reference points
- Initial submissions of manuscripts
- Reviewers initial decisions (about 4 weeks)
- Editors feedback to authors arising from these reviews (about 2 weeks)
- Final revisions received (if required) from authors (about 4 weeks)
- Final submissions to JCAL (about 1 week)
- Authors return copyright assignment forms (about 1 week)
The Special Issue review process
Authors should follow the guidelines on content and format that are supplied elsewhere on this website.
Normally each paper would be reviewed by two independent peers who are expert in the field of that paper. One of these reviewers would be nominated by the Special Issue Editor and they would manage the necessary correspondance. The second reviewer would be recruited by the Deputy Editor of JCAL who would manage that set of correspondance.
The JCAL Editor and Deputy Editor will oversee the final process of integrating the reviews and revisions and making decisions about inclusion of papers. There can be no promise that all papers initiatially submitted for a Special Issue will be included in the final collection. Authors should be aware of this at the outset.
It is very important to respect the deadlines for final submssion of copy to the journal, as publishing production schedules are very disciplined and can not be altered to accommodate late submissions.