Special Issue Guidelines

Contemporary Nurse (CNJ - ISSN 1037-6178) currently runs three special issues per year alternating with three general issues. Special issues appear as a sub-series of Contemporary Nurse titled Advances in Contemporary Nursing (ACN - ISSN 1832-9861). The Managing Editor of ACN is Professor Debra Jackson: debra.jackson@uws.edu.au.

Proposals for special issues are invited following the Guidelines below.

Proposals for Special Issues

The goal of running special issues in CNJ is to provide a coherent outlet for high quality research in a coherent thematic area of topical or practical significance. Periodically, CNJ will put out a call for proposals for special issues. As well, individual academics or teams of academics may wish to put forward a proposal.

For a proposal for a special issue to be considered, it must contain the following information:

Proposed title for the special issue.
Short but sufficiently detailed description of the intended theme(s) and types of papers (eg research articles, case studies) sought for the special issue.
Clear indication of who the Guest Editor or Editors of the proposed special issue would be along with a brief description of their areas of expertise and an indication of why they would be suitable as guest editors. The editor(s) should already have established credibility in the area to be covered by the special issue. Involvement of an overseas (non-Australian or New Zealand-based) editor would be an attractive (but not mandatory) addition to any proposed guest editorial team.
If an editorial team is put forward, the proposal needs to indicate who the Lead Guest Editor will be for all communications regarding the special issue.
A draft Call for Papers statement that would, after any necessary refinements, be printed in CNJ as the official Call for Papers (see this template for a draft Call for Papers).

The Role of Guest Editor

The role of Guest Editor involves a set of responsibilities that must be agreed to before permission to proceed with a special issue can be given:

The Lead Guest Editor will serve as the communication and correspondence conduit between the special issue editorial team and CNJ/eContent Management (Publisher).
The Guest Editor(s) are responsible for identifying and allocating reviewers for submitted papers, ensuring final manuscript word count remains within guideline constraints, and managing the review process using the administrative process described below.
Guest Editor(s) will use OJS to record all acceptance/rejection/revise and resubmit decisions. However, if circumstances require, the Managing Editor reserves the right to override a decision.
The Lead Guest Editor must liaise closely and regularly with both the Managing Editor and the eContent Management staff to finalise the Call for Papers and all deadlines and scheduling issues associated with the production of the special issue.
The Guest Editor(s) write a short introduction (editorial) to the special issue and the articles it contains. Where possible, it is preferable that the Guest Editor(s) arrange for a high-profile international colleague, who has expertise in the area, to write a closing piece (epilogue) drawing some broader conclusions and setting out some broad implications and directions for the future. Where this is not possible, the Guest Editor(s) will write the epilogue.

Normal CNJ practice for special issues is to close the call for papers at 12 months before the issue date. This is to allow 9 months for the Guest Editors to complete the review process and 3 months for eContent Management to process the accepted manuscripts to the publication and mail-out stage. Once the special issue has been integrated into the publication schedule, the final Call for Papers and deadline for receiving manuscripts for review can be set by working backward from the planned publication date. eContent Management will have the final say on the production scheduling for any special issue.

Proposals for special issues of CNJ should be addressed electronically to the Managing Editor and the Publisher. The Managing Editor, after consulting with the CNJ Associate Editors and the Publisher as necessary, will make the final decision as to approval/non-approval of the proposed special issue and will advise the proposers accordingly. If approval is granted, scheduling and planning can commence with eContent Management.

Proposers of a special issue should be aware that if, through the course of assembling the special issue, it becomes apparent that an insufficient number of accepted papers will be available to produce a viable issue, the Managing Editor, after consultation with eContent Management and the Publisher will cancel the special issue and the Lead Guest Editor will be asked to advise all authors of accepted papers accordingly. Any papers that have been given final acceptance for inclusion in a special issue that is ultimately cancelled will be published in the next available general issue of CNJ.

Administrative Process for Producing a Special Issue

The finalised Call for Papers, from the Guest Editors, for an approved special issue will be published as soon as the issue title, Guest Editors, approximate publication date and ISBN are confirmed. The Call for Papers will, at a minimum, be published on the eContent Management website distributed to subscriber and relevant scholarly associations.

eContent Management's OJS web application serves as the central communication hub during the entire process of assembling the special issue. This will ensure proper record keeping and tracking at all stages of the production process. Specifically:

All manuscript submissions for the special issue will be submitted into OJS. The Guest Editors will be provided access to submitted manuscripts and will allocate three reviewers for each manuscript.
When reviews for a paper are received, the Lead Guest Editor will make a recommendation to the Managing Editor and on-forward review reports and editorial feedback to the author(s).
CNJ would like to ensure, as far as possible, that three reviews are received for each paper submitted. If a reviewer is delinquent or becomes unable to complete the task, eContent Management will ask the Guest Editor to nominate a replacement reviewer. In cases where it becomes too difficult or time-critical to achieve three completed reviews, the Guest Editor(s) can make the manuscript decision recommendation based on two reviews.
When revised papers are submitted into OJS where they will either be made available to the original reviewers for re-assessment, or to the Lead Guest Editor as per editorial feedback comments, for further advice on revision, rejection wording or acceptance. Formal acceptance must be issued via eContent Management as there are pre-publication requirements to be communicated to authors.