Journal of Otolaryngology Advances · Special Issues
Propose a Special Issue
Journal of Otolaryngology Advances welcomes proposals for focused collections that address important questions in otolaryngology – head and neck surgery. Researchers with relevant expertise are invited to review the proposal requirements and contact the editorial office.
Proposals accepted year-round Guest-edited, independently reviewed CC BY 4.0
What a Special Issue is at JOA
A Special Issue is a set of articles gathered around one question, commissioned and guided by guest editors who work in that area, and published to the same standards and under the same policies as everything else in the journal.
It is worth doing when a subject has reached the point where scattered papers would be more useful read together: a technique whose indications are still being settled, an outcome measure whose validity is contested, a population whose care differs sharply between settings. It is not worth doing as a way of increasing volume, and a collection assembled for that reason is visible as one.
Articles in a Special Issue are peer-reviewed on the same terms as a regular submission, carry the same license, receive the same identifiers, and appear in the journal’s volume and issue sequence. The archive holds them permanently alongside the rest of the record.
What a proposal should contain
Proposals are assessed by the editorial office and the Editor-in-Chief for subject fit, for the standing of the proposed guest editors in the area, and for whether the topic can realistically attract enough good work. A short, concrete proposal is more useful than a long one.
- A working title and a paragraph stating the question the collection addresses
- Why the subject needs a collection now, rather than individual papers
- The names, affiliations and ORCID iDs of the proposed guest editors, with a short statement of their work in the area
- The article types the collection would carry, and roughly how many articles are expected
- A realistic submission window, with the date the collection would close
- Any competing interests held by the proposed guest editors in relation to the subject
- How submissions would be sought, if the collection depends on invitation rather than open call
Proposals are accepted throughout the year and there is no deadline for submitting one. The editorial office will say whether the subject fits the journal before a proposal is written out in full, and that conversation is usually the quickest way to start.
The guest editor’s role
Guest editors shape the collection and handle its manuscripts. They work within the journal’s policies, and the safeguards below exist so that a collection carries the same weight as the rest of the journal rather than less.
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Subject expertise
Guest editors are active researchers or clinicians in the collection’s subject, identifiable by their published work and by an ORCID iD on record.
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Scope and screening
Every submission to a collection is screened against the journal’s scope before it is reviewed. A Special Issue does not extend the journal into a field it does not publish, and a manuscript that would be out of scope as a regular submission is out of scope in a collection.
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Independent review
Guest editors commission independent reviewers on the same terms as the journal’s own editors: subject expertise, no competing interest, and at least two reviewers for a manuscript that proceeds to external review.
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Competing interests and recusal
A guest editor discloses competing interests at the outset and declines to handle any manuscript where a conflict requires it, including one from their own institution or a close collaborator.
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Manuscripts by a guest editor
Where a guest editor is an author on a manuscript submitted to their own collection, the manuscript is handled entirely outside the collection’s editorial team, by an editor of the journal, and the guest editor has no access to the reviewers, the reports or the decision.
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The final decision
Acceptance rests with the journal. The Editor-in-Chief may decline a manuscript that the collection recommends, and the collection’s editorial correspondence is retained by the editorial office.
The standards a collection is held to
All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal’s scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review. Peer review is single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.
Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal. The editorial policies apply to a collection without modification, including the requirements for ethics approval, consent, trial registration, data availability and competing-interest disclosure.
Article processing charges for a collection are the journal’s standard charges, stated on the article processing charges page, and are payable after acceptance. Acceptance into a collection is an editorial decision and is not affected by payment.
Subjects that fit the journal
A collection must fit the approved ENT scope. Proposals may address clinical, surgical, translational, basic-science or methodological questions within the seven domains below. A central, substantive ENT contribution establishes scope eligibility. Methods and evaluation must support the claims and be appropriate to the study type; clinical deployment or demonstrated patient benefit is not required for every laboratory, mechanistic or early-stage device study.
- Otology, neurotology and audiology
- Rhinology and the anterior skull base
- Laryngology, voice and airway
- Head and neck surgery and oncology
- Pediatric otolaryngology
- Imaging, diagnostics and outcomes
- Facial plastic and reconstructive surgery
The aims and scope page defines each domain in full, together with the fit checklist and the boundary of what falls outside the journal. A proposal is assessed against that page.
If you have a manuscript ready now
Regular submissions are accepted throughout the year, and a manuscript does not need a collection to find its readers. Work that fits the journal’s scope can be submitted at any time and is published as soon as it is ready.
Read the instructions for authors before you prepare the files, and the aims and scope page if you are not certain the subject fits.
Where to go next
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Current issue
What the journal is publishing now, and the issue the record is currently open at.
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Archive
The complete published record, by volume and issue.
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Editorial policies
The policies a collection is held to, without modification.
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For editors
What the journal expects of an editor handling a manuscript.
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Editorial board
The editors who assess proposals and hold the final decision.
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Instructions for authors
Manuscript requirements, which are the same in a collection as anywhere else.
Start a conversation about a collection
The editorial office can say quickly whether a subject fits the journal and what a workable collection would look like. Send a working title, a paragraph on the question, and the names of the researchers who would guide it.
Journal of Otolaryngology Advances (JOA)
ISSN 2379-8572 · Crossref DOI prefix 10.14302 ·
Published by Open Access Pub ·
Articles are published under CC BY 4.0 with copyright retained by the authors.