Guest Editor Guidelines

Executive Summary

This document provides guidelines for the guest editorial team on special issues about the review process of the special issue proposals for the IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology (OJVT).

Preparation of a Special Issue Proposal

The following information is required:

  • A brief description of the scope of the proposed special issue, a concise description of the state-of-the-art in the proposed area(s), and a justification of why the proposed special issue would be of interest to the readership of IEEE Open Journal of Vehicular Technology.
  • Biography of guest editor(s). It is important to highlight their previous editorial experience.
  • A draft Call for Papers (CFP). A one-page CFP that includes a brief description of the proposed special issue and pertinent deadlines, and the type of articles submitted for peer review (e.g., whether survey papers and tutorial papers are accepted for consideration).

Review and Approval Process

When a special issue proposal is submitted by a team of guest editors, the Editor-in-Chief checks for the proposed scope and performs a check on the prohibited author list (PAL) as no guest editor may be on the PAL. If both are passed, then:

  1. the Editor-in-Chief
    1. assigns an editor to review the special issue proposal and asks for comments if there is no conflict of interest between the Editor-in-Chief and the team of guest editors.
    2. assigns an Editor-at-large who in turn assigns an editor to review the special issue proposal and asks for comments, if there is a conflict of interest between the Editor-in-Chief and the team of guest editors.
  2. after receiving the comments from the assigned editor, the Editor-in-Chief
    1. reviews and approves preliminary decision, if there is no conflict of interest between the Editor-in-Chief and the guest editors.
    2. delegates an Editor-at-large to review and approve the preliminary decision, if there is a conflict of interest between the Editor-in-Chief and the guest editors.
  3. if the decision is to accept the special issue, then the Editor-in-Chief will confirm with the team of guest editors that they accept the following terms and conditions:
    1. all guest editors are not allowed to submit any coauthored paper to their proposed special issue. In return, the guest editors are asked to write a short guest editorial to introduce the accepted papers as well as an invited paper on the topics of the special issue.
    2. an existing Editorial Board member will be assigned as a consulting editor to the guest editors so that they always have a point of contact for questions/comments. The consulting editor is not part of the guest editor team but will help oversee the special issue’s progress and provide the guest editors with constructive comments from time to time.
    3. all guest editors are advised in advance of the recommended acceptance rate of the special issue.
    4. all guest editors are required to review the journal's Editorial Board Guidelines.