Guest Editor Kit

GENERAL BACKGROUND

Special Issues, or guest-edited issues, are in many ways the backbone of IEEE Network. Indeed, initially the idea was that every issue would be a special issue on a particular topic. In the first several years, virtually all issues fell into that category. IEEE Network has the continued focus on good guest-edited, or Special Issues, containing good articles, and good editorial content.

PROPOSING A SPECIAL ISSUE TOPIC

Potential Guest Editors should develop a proposal and submit it to the Editor-in-Chief. The main sections of the proposal are:

• The proposed Guest Editors with complete contact information
• The purpose of the Special Issue
• Potential sources of papers
• A proposed schedule

An extremely important requirement is that each proposal must respect the timelines given by the Production Staff. Please ensure that all articles comply with the style, length, and timeliness guidelines.

An example of a successful proposal, which was developed into a special issue, is linked to this page. For the exceptionally curious, the result is the May 2005 issue of IEEE Network.

When preparing a proposal for a SI, please consider the following suggestions:

• If you decide to have a number of Guest Editors (and it is suggested that you do as it is a lot of work for a single person), it is encouraged to the degree possible of course, to include Guest Editors from different geographical areas (Europe, Asia, etc.) in order to increase the chance of attracting contributors from around the globe. This is a nice feature to have, but it is not a requirement.

• The "purpose of the issue" (also referred to as the Justification) should address two main points:

  1. A justification of timeliness and relevance to IEEE Network, i.e., why there is a need of the particular issue and why IEEE Network in particular is an appropriate venue.

  2. Motivation of subject topics within the context of the Special Issue. This is an important point, as it defines the scope of each subject topic. Generic/Wide topics (e.g., "wireless networks" or "security") are usually not helpful and need to be further narrowed down, relating them to particular aspects of the Special Issue's subject. Clarifications/Edits are requested from the proposal submitters if the relevance of certain topics to the Special Issue cannot be understood, or if there is no evident reason why a separate subject topic is warranted.

• • It is usual practice for a listing of subject topics to accompany (b). Usually, no more than 8 to 10 papers are published in a Special Issue, so there might not be a need to list many topics anyway.

• With regard to the potential sources of papers, please note that Special Issues are not a platform for publishing invited papers. Papers submitted to a Special Issue must be submitted based on a publicly distributed Call for Papers (CFP). Contributions from specific authors can be solicited, but only as a response to the publicly distributed CFP. To assess the potential of a healthy pool of submissions for considerations, you may want to list names of potential authors and/or relevant conferences/workshops/etc. (with the tacit assumption that authors that have published in them are a potential author pool (solicited or not) to IEEE Network as well).

• IEEE Network is a magazine, not a Transactions style journal. Thus, our papers must be written in tutorial style, comprehensible to the non-specialists (see Author Guidelines). We do not publish purely research-style papers (even though research results may be presented through our papers). There are more appropriate venues than our magazine for purely research papers.

• Please note, that the proposal for the issue is not the same as the CFP (even though the latter can use the former as its basis). The proposal is targeting the IEEE Network editors that will evaluate the purpose, scope, appropriateness to the magazine and other administrative aspects of the special issue while the CFP is targeting the potential contributors to the issue.

• The Guest Editors and the Editor-in-Chief go through a very careful evaluation of each received proposal and quite often proposers are asked to revise their proposal. Following the guidelines listed here may reduce the time it takes to evaluate a proposal.

CALL FOR PAPERS FOR SPECIAL ISSUES

Guest editors must always prepare some form of a CFP and this call should be broadly advertised. It is extremely important that all potential authors have an equal opportunity to submit a paper. Of course, all papers under consideration for the Special Issue must undergo a thorough peer review (receiving at least three reviews) according to the magazine's Reviewer Guidelines.

GUEST EDITORIAL GUIDELINES

Guest Editors should prepare a Guest Editorial (800 words maximum) that mentions each paper in order of appearance and includes IEEE-style biographies for each Guest Editor (75 words maximum). The Guest Editorial should address the significance, impact, practical usefulness, and future directions of the topic. Perhaps most important, it should convey the Guest Editors' enthusiasm to the readers. An editorial which does little more than describe each feature article will not be acceptable.

Guest Editorials should be emailed in plain text to the publications office, along with color photographs of each Guest Editor. Digital photographs should be in .tif format with at least 300 dpi resolution.

STYLE AND FORMAT GUIDELINES FOR PAPERS

• Articles should be tutorial in nature and should be written in a style comprehensible to readers outside the specialty of the article.
• Articles may be edited for clarity and grammatical accuracy, and will be copyedited according to the magazine's style.
• Mathematical equations should be kept to a minimum, and not be used unless they are vital to the presentation. If the article has numerous equations, please call the editor to discuss.
• References should be included only to guide readers to more information on the topic; the reference list should not include every available souce. A limit of 15 references is recommended. The inclusion of more than 15 references requires permission from the Editor-in-Chief. References to Web pages should be checked immediately for accessibility before submitting material to the Production Staff. Use footnotes only where necessary.
• Articles should not exceed 4500 words.
• Figures and tables should be limited to a combined total of six. If the article exceeds these recommended limits, contact the Guest Editor (or the Editor-in-Chief) handling the manuscript.

TIMELINE

• Final manuscripts due: The 15th of the month, 2 months prior to issue date. For example, all materials for an article in the May/June issue are due by March 15th.
• Guest Editorials/Departments due: The 1st of the following month, 1 month prior to issue date. For example, all Guest Editorials and departments in the May/June issue are due by April 1st.
• Page proofs sent to contact author: 4 weeks prior to issue date.
• Page proofs back to department: 3 weeks prior to issue date.

SUBMISSION OF ACCEPTED MATERIALS

Please instruct authors to read the Author Guidelines page to determine what they need to send the Production Staff prior to the deadline.

CONTACTS

Please view the Production Staff List for contact information.