Special Issues

How to Submit a Special Issue

To submit a proposal for Special Issues, Microbiota in Health and Diseases requests an official document that must include:

1) The title of the proposed Special Issue and the topic covered. A summary of the objectives of the Special Issue is also required to evaluate whether it falls within the aims and scopes of the journal. The journal also requires, whether possible, a list of titles or abstracts of the articles, if already collected, to evaluate the quality of the manuscripts before submission. A list of authors is required as well.

2) Submission and publication deadline.

3) A list of Guest Editors, including their current affiliations, personal information and institutional emails, ORCID ID, brief résumé and prior publications and/or Special Issues and a possible list of reviewers with complete affiliation and email addresses.

The Editor in Chief will evaluate the suitability of the Special Issue in terms of quality and alignment with the aims and scopes of the journal.

Please, download the following form, which must be appropriately signed, filled, and sent to submission.microbiota@verduci.it

By signing this agreement, the Guest Editors accept and ensure to strictly adhere to the following responsibilities and guidelines.

 

Peer-Review Process Management

  1. Any submission of the articles for the Special Issues must be finalized through the online system (Publishing Manager.org).
  2. The peer-review process is managed through our online system as well.
    • Each manuscript undergoes a regular peer-review process as established by our guidelines and must be sent to two/three reviewers specialized in the field. In addition to the reviewers proposed by the Guest Editors, peer-review is also conducted by the journal’s reviewers. Any disagreement among reviewers is managed as per the journal’s policy. Decisions concerning the acceptance or rejection of manuscripts are founded on the reviewers’ assessment. The Editor in Chief or Editorial Board Members maintain oversight and may also participate in the decision-making process on specific occasions.

 

Guest Editors’ Responsibilities

  1. The Guest Editors are responsible for collecting manuscripts, contacting authors, and inviting possible researchers.
  2. Guest Editors propose a possible reviewers’ list, ensuring they comply with the journal’s COI policy. It is likely that Guest Editors appear as authors in contributions to the Special Issue. Note that as per the latest COPE and DOAJ guidelines, contributions from Guest Editors must be limited to the 25% of the total issue. Note that Guest Editors cannot make decisions about any article on which they are named as authors or in which there are possible conflicts of interest. In these cases, the Editor in Chief oversees the manuscript and nominates independent and external reviewers for the peer-review.
  3. The Guest Editors, along with the Editorial Board Members, overview the review process by ensuring it follows the editorial policies and timely submissions from authors.
  4. The Guest Editors are responsible, together with the authors, for the final check and approval of the galley proofs before publication.

 

Editor In Chief and Editorial Board Members’ Responsibilities

  1. The Editor in Chief or Editorial Board Members maintain oversight and ensure the absence of any real, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest or peer-review irregularities.
  2. The Editor in Chief has the final right to accept or reject manuscripts of the Special Issue.
  3. The Editor in Chief has the right to cancel any Special Issue if any irregularity and unethical practices arise during the review process.
  4. The Editor in Chief nominates independent and external reviewers for the peer-review for contributions in which Guest Editors contribute as authors.

 

Ethical Considerations

  • By signing the agreement, the Guest Editors agree to follow the above-mentioned editorial guidelines and COPE guidelines on Good Publication Practice.
  • The manuscripts must be drafted following the journal’s guidelines as specified in the Instructions for Authors and must contain these statements.
  • The journal guarantees transparency as the submissions and review process of the Special Issue are managed on Publishing Manager.
  • Guest Editors, authors and reviewers are required to keep confidential all details of the editorial and peer-review process on submitted manuscripts. The peer-review process is confidential and conducted anonymously; reviewers’ identities are not released. Reviewers must maintain confidentiality of manuscripts as well.
  • An unethical use of self-citation is forbidden and can result in manuscript rejection.

 

Conflicts of Interest

Any real, potential or perceived conflict of interest related to the topic of the research must be declared by the Guest Editors during submission and by authors in each manuscript. The authors are also required to flag a disclosure on conflicts of interest during submission on the online system Publishing Manager.

 

Publication Process

After final acceptance, Special Issues articles are not published as regular articles but are labeled as “special issue”, with a dedicated section on the website.

The Editorial Office sends the galley proof twice to corresponding authors, who must approve them before publication. Any issues and or requests (i.e., authorship changes, major corrections to the manuscript, and so on) are managed as per journal policy.

 

Post-Publication Concerns

If concerns are raised after publication regarding Special Issue contents, the Editor in Chief and the Editorial Board Members take the responsibility to promptly investigate any irregularities as for regularly published articles.