Editor's Guide Journals

Greetings from the Editorial Team

Dear Editor-in-Chief,

We are pleased that you have agreed to become the Editor-in-Chief of one of IGI Global’s international journals. The ultimate goal of this journal is to produce a high-quality publication that will serve as a cutting-edge resource for researchers in the field and provide recognition for the journal’s editorial staff and contributing authors. We are very excited about this new publication and would like to offer you IGI Global’s full support and cooperation.

The IGI Global Editor’s Guide will provide you with clear direction that will make your job easier and more efficient throughout the development process for your journal. Because editing a scholarly journal is an ongoing process, this guide is efficiently organized to allow easy access to the materials that you will need at every stage of the development process, but we also encourage you to review other areas and steps to familiarize yourself with the requirements and tasks associated with the whole process from manuscript submission to final publication. Adhering to these requirements will help you develop a high-quality journal and prevent delays and problems during the creation of your journal.

Your journal will be developed through IGI Global’s online submission manager, eEditorial Discovery®^TM, a tool designed to make the development process smooth and efficient for you and your authors. Throughout the Editor’s Guide, you will also find instructions on using eEditorial Discovery® to facilitate the development of your journal. Please feel free to contact your assigned development editor with any questions or concerns.

Please know that you will have continued support from our development team throughout the publication process. Once you have read through this guide, should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at (717) 533-8845 or journaleditor@igi-global.com.

We certainly wish you the best of luck in this exciting endeavor! It is the continued goal of IGI Global to produce the highest-quality, progressive titles that appeal to independent researchers, academicians, students, and industry professionals all over the world. We are pleased to be working with you on the development of your journal. With more than two decades of experience publishing informative, innovative titles in a variety of academic discipline areas, we are confident that together we can produce a high-quality publication. We look forward to making your publishing experience enjoyable and rewarding!

Sincerely,

The Development Team
IGI Global

Journal Development Schedule of Deadlines

IGI Global has decided to switch from our more traditional publication structure (i.e. Semi-Annual, Quarterly, Bi-Monthly) to a Continuous Volume Frequency for all IGI Global journals. As articles are accepted, the journal department will be proceeding with those articles through to our pre-production and production workflows to be published ongoingly throughout the year. The final cutoff of the volume year will be November 30th of each calendar year. At the end of each year, IGI Global will do a full printed publication of all the content published throughout the respective volume year, for anyone who is interested in purchasing a physical copy of the journal.

The schedule of deadlines will vary from journal to journal now as the final number of published articles differ from each journal. IGI Global asks that editors strive to publish the same number of articles published in the last volume, with a strong encouragement to work towards publishing more content each volume year to show a growing interest in the field to the indices.

Editors should always strive to increase the total number of accepted and published articles by 15% each volume year

How to Use This Guide

The IGI Global Editor’s Guide is organized to efficiently present you with all the information you need at every stage of the development process. Use the links below to quickly navigate to the phase or step you are interested in. We encourage you to read ahead to better prepare yourself for upcoming deadlines and requirements. Helpful links to additional documents and guides are included throughout this guide to answer all of your questions during the development process, but if you have a question not addressed here, please feel free to ask your development contact for clarification.

Throughout the guide, you will also see headings denoting the active phase of the current step in the development process. Click on these headings for a step-by-step tutorial on utilizing the eEditorial Discovery®^TM online submission manager.

• Journal Information Questionnaire
• Call for Papers
• Editorial Review Board

• Step 1: Distributing Your Call for Papers
• Step 2: Initial Assessment
• Step 3: Preparing Manuscripts for Review

• Step 4: Manuscript Evaluation by Editorial Review Board Members
• Step 5: Associate Editor Review
• Step 6: Manuscript Revision

• Step 7: Accepting Manuscripts
• Step 8: Issue Selection
• Step 9: Completing the Issue

Before getting started on your inaugural issue, we will need to prepare for the development process by completing your Journal Information Questionnaire, creating your Call for Papers, and setting up your Editorial Review Board.

The Journal Information Questionnaire includes the pertinent details that will be used to create your journal’s website and submission portal. These include your 100-150 word biography, a bulleted list of coverage topics, mission and objective statements, etc. This website will be the first point of contact many contributors and readers will have with your journal, so it is important to be as detailed yet concise as possible in your responses. Your answers will also be used in the marketing and promotion of your journal to increase submissions and subscribers alike.

Please download, complete, and return the Journal Information Questionnaire to your assigned development editor as soon as possible.

Download Blank Questionnaire Here

After you have completed your Journal Information Questionnaire, the next step is to prepare a call for papers. The acquisition of quality articles begins with a strong call for papers; we encourage you to take the time to develop this document so that it is concise and effective. Your call for papers should be as brief as possible while still providing a clear overview of the project’s focus and goals.

The basic structure of a call for papers is as follows:

• Invitation – In this paragraph, include a generic invitation for authors to contribute to your journal.
• Mission – In this paragraph, describe your vision and objective for the journal. What will the journal accomplish? This can be the same paragraph as you provided on your Journal Information Questionnaire.
• Coverage – In this section, include a list of recommended topics (we suggest 20-30) within the scope of your journal on which you would like contributors to write. The intent of this list is to provide contributors with ideas that they can use when writing their own articles, so it is advisable to provide a broad range of topics for authors to consider. While it is best to include an extensive list of recommended topics, you’ll want to indicate here that the list you have provided is not necessarily comprehensive.
• Submission Procedure – In this paragraph, clearly lay out for your potential contributors what the manuscript submission requirements are, specifically, content, length, and type of submission. This section should also include a link to IGI Global’s general submission guidelines at http://www.igi-global.com/publish/contributor-resources/before-you-write/ and include information on the review process (for example, that each submitted manuscript will undergo a double-blind peer review process by at least 3 ERB members and 1 Associate Editor). All manuscripts will need to be submitted through IGI Global’s online submission platform, eEditorial Discovery®.
• Inquiries – In this section, please include email and/or postal addresses at which potential contributors can contact you with questions.

Sample Call for Papers
Sample Personalized Invitation

After preparing your call for papers, you will want to immediately begin inviting qualified individuals to join your Editorial Review Board (ERB). The strength of any journal lies with a strong ERB, led by the Editor-in-Chief, which oversees the editorial aspects of the journal, most notably, the double-blind peer review of submitted manuscripts. You will want to appoint people to your board who will provide assistance to you in creating a journal with a strong coverage and a dynamic nature that ensures that the journal evolves as the technologies and issues of the field develop. Additionally, these individuals should be ready, willing, and able to submit completed and quality reviews on time.

Your editorial review board will have three tiers: ad-hoc reviewers, editorial review board members, and associate editors. When new reviewers join your board, they will first be designated as ad-hoc reviewers. Ad-hoc reviewers are not listed on the journal’s masthead or website, but they assist in reviewing manuscripts and providing their feedback on submissions. Ad-hoc reviewers serve the journal on a trial basis, so feel free to add or dismiss these reviewers at your discretion. New ad-hoc reviewers may submit their applications online at http://www.igi-global.com/journals/become-a-reviewer/

Ad-hoc reviewers who prove themselves and their dedication to your journal can be promoted to full members of the editorial review board. As members, reviewers will be listed in the journal, on the journal webpage, and will have a higher level of prestige within the journal. ERB members will also be expected to review manuscripts more frequently, and their completed reviews should be both detailed and insightful. It is important to maintain 30–50 editorial review board members at any given time.

Any editorial review board members who continually prove themselves to be effective reviewers and who express a willingness to contribute to the journal beyond their regular reviewer’s tasks can be promoted to the role of Associate Editor. Associate Editors will be asked to review manuscripts that have received favorable reviews from the editorial review board and will help you to make a final decision on each submission. In addition, Associate Editors will be active in promoting your journal and soliciting new submissions, so it is important to only promote the most trusted of reviewers to this position. Associate Editors are considered the best of the best within your journal’s review board, and so should only include 7–10 qualified individuals.

Also, we encourage the appointment of an International Advisory Board in addition to your ERB. The International Advisory Board may consist of 3–8 individuals whom you see as pioneers or prevalent researchers in the field. The aim of the International Advisory Board is to lend scholarly value and prestige to your journal, and while members are honorary and have little direct participation in the development of the journal, they can be effective resources in calling for submissions.

In an effort to ensure that the individuals on each board are labelled correctly, anyone who has given their consent to serve as a "Figure Head" for the journal can be added onto the International Ambassadors Board. This board is optional and serves as an overflow for anyone who may not be able to serve in an advisory role as International Advisors, but can still provide some outside aid when called on. International Ambassadors are expected to aid with the promotion of the journal, support with ongoing article recruitment strategies, identify different discoverability/visibility channels for the journal and to help expand the overall network of the journal.

Sample ERB Invitation

**Please note that all editorial review board members must provide written confirmation of their inclusion in the board. Members cannot be added without their knowledge and permission.**

In the first phase of the development process, you will be recruiting contributors and gathering the materials that publish ongoingly throughout the volume year. It is important to bring in new submissions on a continuous basis in order to ensure a healthy pool of papers are available for review. The following steps will be performed on each manuscript, with the whole process managed through the Current Manuscripts page within eEditorial Discovery®.

• Step 1: Distributing Your Call for Papers
• Step 2: Initial Assessment
• Step 3: Preparing Manuscripts for Review

Active Phase: Submission

The key to success for any journal is the diligence of the Editor-in-Chief in recruiting new manuscripts. The distribution of your call for papers and personalized invitations should be an ongoing process to ensure that new papers are submitted to your journal regularly. Ideally, a healthy journal will have approximately 30 papers in queue undergoing peer review. If the number of pending submissions drops below 10, we strongly advise the Editor-in-Chief to focus his or her efforts on procuring new submissions. Please ask your development contact for assistance should the number of papers in queue become a concern.

Remember that your Editorial Review Board and Associate Editors are also stakeholders in this project and can assist in the acquisition of new submissions. Not only should they consider submitting their research to the journal, but they should also be approached about promoting the journal by distributing information about it to their networks of colleagues.

Personalized Invitations

In addition to posting your call for papers on various professional listservs, the most effective way to gather submissions for your journal is to send targeted, personalized invitations to potential contributors. It is important to lay out your invitation like a personal letter by describing some of the pertinent topics covered by your journal that correspond with your targeted authors’ research interests and areas of expertise. Also include a link to your call for papers as well as the direct link where contributors may submit their papers to your journal.

You will want to actively call for submissions continuously to ensure that a healthy pool of articles is always maintained in the submission system for your journal.

The most successful editors will employ a combination of personalized invitations and distribution of the call for papers to listservs and conferences. Keep in mind that you can use many of these same methods to recruit new members for your Editorial Review Board, which will also help your journal to grow. Remember to provide contributors with submission guidelines in your invitations:

Manuscript Submission Guidelines
Tips for distributing your call

Please see the following example of a good personalized invitation:

Sample personalized invitation

It is important to avoid including your own papers within the journal. To an outside observer, articles written by the Editor-in-Chief of the journal will appear to have been selected to showcase the editor's own work at the expense of other submissions. Whether or not this is true, the perception can be potentially damaging to the journal's reputation. It would be best to submit your work to another journal instead, and your Development Editor can offer suggestions for potential outlets.

**Please note that authors will be required to submit their papers through eEditorial Discovery®^TM. When communicating with potential contributors, be sure to provide them with the link to your call for papers as well as the link where they can submit their papers directly.**

Special Issues

We encourage you to invite other professionals and researchers in your field to guest edit special issues for your journal. These special issues will be developed and managed through eEditorial Discovery®^TM, as is explained in greater detail below, but the guest editors will function in the role of editor for these submissions. Once the issue is completed and the manuscripts adhere to your editorial standars, you can assign them to a forthcoming issue of your journal.

For more information on the process of proposing and developing a special issue, please see the Special Issue Guest Editor's Guide. Please also provide the link to this guide to any guest editors interested in submitting a special issue proposal to your journal.

Active Phase: Initial Assessment

As you receive manuscripts from authors, the first step is to briefly review the paper to ensure that the submission is in line with the requirements, vision, and objective of your journal. You should review the manuscript for the following criteria:

• Is the paper well written and clear?
• Does the subject-matter fit with the focus of the journal?
• Does the paper exhibit quality research standards, such as properly cited references and an objective viewpoint?
• Does the paper have the potential to be a quality contribution to your journal?
• Is the paper free from plagiarism?
• Additional items that pertain to your particular journal.
• Have the authors removed all of the identifying information from their submitted article?

At this stage, you can reject any papers you feel do not meet the above criteria, but it is usually advisable to look for the potential in a submission rather than searching for a reason to reject. Even if you are uncertain about the present quality of a paper, keep in mind that you can always ask authors to revise their work and resubmit, and authors will have an additional opportunity to revise their work following the peer review process.

Active Phase: Remove Identifying Information

While the submission process through eEditorial Discovery®^TM enables authors to submit a manuscript free of personal or identifying information, it is important to ensure that the copy of the manuscript you send to your Editorial Review Board is completely anonymous, to preserve the crucial double-blind review process.

Before sending a manuscript to your editorial board for review, check the document carefully for information such as the authors’ names, affiliations, and bios. Remove all information that identifies the authors of the manuscript, and save a blind copy of the paper for review.

In the second phase of the development process, you will be organizing the double-blind peer review process for manuscripts submitted to your journal. There are two steps to this evaluation process. First, the manuscript will be sent for evaluation to a total of 5-6 Editorial Review Board members and ad-hoc reviewers in order to acquire the required minimum of 3 completed manuscript evaluations. If these evaluations are favorable, you will then send the manuscript to one of your Associate Editors to receive their feedback and advice before making your final decision on the manuscript. Should the ERB and ad-hoc reviewers feel that the article should be rejected, please note that you as the editor have the capability to reject the articles after that first layer or review. To ensure that you Associate Editors do not get fatigued, IGI Global recommends that only articles that the ERB and ad-hoc reviewers respond favorably to should move to the second later of review.

These are some of the most important steps in the process, as it is your opportunity to evaluate the quality of each article in your journal, ensuring that only the very best papers are selected for publication. Journals with a poorly executed peer-review process risk ethical violations, and their credibility may come into question.

A strong journal will have a minimum of 30 manuscripts in review at any given time, and the review process for all of these submissions must be completed in a timely fashion.

• Step 4: Manuscript Evaluation by Editorial Review Board Members
• Step 5: Associate Editor Review
• Step 6: Manuscript Revision

Active Phase: Select and Contact Editorial Review Board Evaluators

The peer review process is one of the most important steps in the creation of a credible, high-quality journal. Following these steps precisely is crucial to organizing a successful review.

Start by selecting a total of 5-6 reviewers from your Editorial Review Board and ad-hoc reviewers list according to their areas of expertise, choosing reviewers who have a background in a similar subject area as the topics covered in the paper. We advise selecting an even mix of Editorial Review Board members and ad-hoc reviewers, so as to give the review process the credibility of a review by your ERB while still enabling your ad-hoc reviewers to prove themselves.

Note that since the peer review process is double-blind, under no circumstances should you allow any of the reviewers to know the names of the contributing authors and vice versa. Additionally, Editor(s)-in-Chief shall not be a member of their own review board and/or complete review evaluation that replaces a review in the double-blind peer review process.

We recommend providing reviewers with no more than two weeks to complete their evaluations of a manuscript. This is to ensure that if a reviewer does not complete their evaluation as promised, you will still have time to seek additional reviewers as needed. A minimum of 3 completed manuscript evaluations from your Editorial Review Board (or ad-hoc reviewers) is needed before this process is complete.

One week before the due date, in order to be proactive, you should send an evaluation reminder email to any reviewers who have not yet responded. Feel free to reassign any manuscript with unresponsive reviewers to new reviewers as needed.

Editorial Review Board members agree to review approximately three to five manuscripts per year (though some industrious and dedicated reviewers can complete more); therefore, when selecting reviewers for manuscripts, be mindful that reviewers should not receive more than one manuscript every 30 days.

Please note that the peer review phase (this includes the evaluations performed by the ERB and ad-hoc reviewers as well as by the Associate Editor) should last no longer than 1-2 months. If a manuscript’s review takes too long, the author may decide to withdraw their manuscript from consideration, and this could be extremely detrimental to the volume of content published in future issues.

Active Phase: Assess and Approve Editorial Review Board Evaluations

As reviewers submit their evaluations, you should start assessing the results. As you will notice, all three reviewers may not agree on the potential of each manuscript, and comments may contradict. Be sure to take what suggestions and comments the reviewers provide into careful consideration.

In addition to specific comments for the author, each review will consist of an overall evaluation, recommendation for revision, and editorial decision: Accept, Accept After Revision, or Reject. Use this feedback as well as your own impressions of the manuscript to decide how to proceed.

Active Phase: Select and Contact Associate Editor to Evaluate

Once at least three members of your Editorial Review Board have completed their evaluations, you may need to send the paper to an Associate Editor for an additional evaluation. Manuscripts are sent to an Associate Editor when reviewers have different opinions as to the publishing possibilities of a manuscript. For instance, you may have two reviewers accept a manuscript while a third recommends rejection. Alternatively, you may have two reviewers recommend rejection while the third recommends acceptance. In either situation, an Associate Editor must be asked to make the final recommendation.

Similar to your ERB review, we recommend providing the Associate Editor with no more than two weeks to complete this evaluation. In addition, a single manuscript should only be assigned to one Associate Editor at a time. Your Associate Editors are the most trusted members of your editorial board, and will be expected to demonstrate that trust with each manuscript submitted to them. Assign each manuscript to a single Associate Editor to avoid overburdening your editors.

Active Phase: Assess and Approve Associate Editor Evaluations

Your Associate Editor will provide similar feedback as your reviewers, and based on their combined recommendations, you can now make a final decision regarding the manuscript:

1. Accept—If the submitted manuscript is already of publishable quality, you may choose to accept the paper outright. In this case, skip to step 7.
2. Reject—If the Associate Editor reacts poorly to a submission, you may consider rejecting it. Be sure to notify the author of your decision and let them know that you look forward to their next submission.
3. Accept Pending Revision—This is the most common option chosen by editors. The paper is conditionally accepted, and the authors will have one final opportunity to revise their work based on the reviewers’ (and your) comments. Please see step 6 for more information.

Please note that as the Editor-in-Chief of this journal, you have the final decision on all manuscripts. Though the majority of reviewers may choose to reject a paper, you can still send it back to the authors to revise if you feel the manuscript has potential.

Active Phase: Editor-in-Chief Evaluation

Now that all of the reviews have been completed and made available to the authors of the manuscript, you can take the reviewers’ feedback into account in making a decision for this manuscript. You may choose to accept or reject the submission at this time, but most editors request revisions from their contributors prior to formally accepting the contribution to their journal.

Please note that the majority of authors will like to have the opportunity to revise their manuscripts as per the reviewer comments to ensure that their best work is being published in the journal.

Active Phase: Editor-in-Chief Revision Requested

Rather than fully accepting a manuscript, you may choose to accept it conditionally based upon the author’s revisions. By electing to send the manuscript back to the author for revision, you will be providing the author with all approved reviews as well as your own comments regarding the changes you feel need to be implemented before the paper can be accepted. Provide the author with four to six weeks to revise the paper.

Active Phase: Editor-in-Chief Revision Review

Upon receipt of the revised paper, you have two options. The first is to review the author’s changes yourself to make a find accept/reject decision. This is a good option when you have asked the author to make a few very specific edits, but in some cases, further review from your editorial board is needed.

Active Phase: Editor-in-Chief Revision Associate Editor Review

If you need additional feedback on a revised manuscript prior to making your final decision, you may send the revised manuscript back to the same Associate Editor who evaluated it the first time. Based on the Associate Editor’s second round of feedback, you should now have enough information to make a confident decision on the status of the manuscript.

The final phase of the development process involves approving and selecting papers to publish in the current volume. Articles can be accepted at any time throughout the volume year and will be published ongoingly. Articles should be accepted prior to November 30th of each year. November 30th is the formal cut off date for the volume year to ensure that editors have ample time to begin collecting materials for the forthcoming volume year.

• Step 7: Accepting Manuscripts
• Step 8: Issue Selection
• Step 9: Completing the Issue

Active Phase: Accepted

Once authors receive the acceptance of their article, they now receive a reminder email from the submission system to ensure that their final revised versions of their articles are uploaded and ready for publication. The authors are given 1 week to look over their articles and let the Journal Development Team and the editor know that their articles are ready for publication.

Before you receive the authors’ materials, be sure to familiarize yourself with the Final Submission Requirements for Authors.

As authors let the Journal Department and the editors know that their final materials have been uploaded into the submission system, IGI Global encourages the editors to double check the uploaded materials to ensure that the article meets IGI Global's submission guidelines as well as ensures that the article has been formally copy edited. All manuscripts must be professionally copyedited and revised prior to final submission. Further edits to the text cannot be made later in the process.

If any of the authors have failed to send you an item or have failed to prepare an item correctly, please contact them as soon as possible to ensure the speedy delivery of the missing/incorrect item. This will also be your opportunity to make any necessary last-minute corrections or edits to the manuscripts before the Journal Department moves forward with the publication of the article

**Please note that any items that do not conform to IGI Global standards will be sent back to the authors for correction, so it is vitally important to ensure that the submission of each completed manuscript is entirely correct to facilitate the efficient and on-schedule completion of the publication process.**

Active Phase: Issue Selection

As articles are accepted, they can be assigned to the "first issue" of the current volume year. All accepted standard issue content can pile into this labelling throughout the year.

It is recommended that editors strive to publish the same amount of content each volume year, with a strong encouragement to publish more content each volume year as that shows a growing interest in the field, which the indices find very favorable. Book reviews and research notes are still acceptable to publish, however, please ensure that you as the editor are publishing more research articles than the supplemental material.

Active Phase: Download Final Materials

Active Phase: Finalized & Locked

Active Phase: Rejected

Preparing Your Editor’s Note (optional)

The final step in developing the completed volume year is to write an editor’s note for the issue. An editor’s note, should you wish to include one, will be published at the beginning of the published volume at the end of the year. This note provides a forum for editors to explain the contents of each issue and/or comment on a current trend within the field.

Your editor’s note should be between 500 and 1,500 words and should provide an overview of the subject matter being discussed in the present volume. Drawing on specific examples from the issue is a good way to show how the articles are on the cutting edge of research in the field.

Sample Editor’s Note

Writing Your Preface

A preface is similar in length to the editor’s note (about 2 to 3 pages), but will focus more directly on the contents of the volume. A strong preface will include the following points:

• An overview of the subject matter
• A description of where the journal fits in the world today
• A description of the target audience
• A description of the importance of each of the articles (this entails providing a paragraph description of each article)
• A conclusion of how the journal impacts the field and contributes to the subject matter

Your preface is your summary of the volume, your chance to highlight important parts of the publication and demonstrate the significance of the articles within. Put your passion for the topic into your writing, and your preface will be both effective and engaging.

With the ongoing publication of accepted content throughout the volume year, Editors are now encouraged to provide the editor's note or editorial preface at the end of the volume year, between November 30th, and December 7th.

Sample Editorial Preface

Submitting Your Accepted Articles to IGI Global

Once you have completed preparing your materials and verifying that all requirements have been met, check your authors’ manuscripts one last time to confirm submission of the final version and to ensure that these articles meet IGI Global formatting and publication requirements. If you are certain that each accepted article is ready for publication, please notify your development editor that the contents are ready for download.

Please note that until each article goes to print, we may still contact you with any questions, concerns, or corrections needed to ensure the quality and timeliness of the final publication of these articles. Should you have any questions or concerns, or be in need of any assistance during the final steps of the development process, please do not hesitate to contact your development editor.

Congratulations on your newly accepted articles! While we prepare your materials for final publication, return to Phase 1, Step 1 to begin the process again for more accepted articles. The most effective journals will process submissions on a continuous basis, so you should always have manuscripts ready to move through each step of the process.

Editing a scholarly journal means more than accepting submissions and selecting contents for publication. As your journal grows, so will your relationships with your authors and review board, and the strength of these relationships will only help your journal to grow to even greater levels of success.

* * * * * * * * * * *

On behalf of the development team, thank you for your diligent work and excellence in overseeing the development of this publication. We wish you the very best for a most successful journal!