SPECIAL ISSUES in Tourism Geographies
Special Issues are collections of new papers on a single topic or theme. Guidelines for special issues are below. Also see our list of Special Issues, both forthcoming and published.
Conference Sponsorship - If you would like to invite Tourism Geographies to be a sponsor or supporter of you conference or other academic event, please see our Conference Conference Sponsorship Guidelines here.
Conference Sponsorship - If you would like to invite Tourism Geographies to be a sponsor or supporter of you conference or other academic event, please see our Conference Conference Sponsorship Guidelines here.
Guidelines for Guest Editors of Special Issues
A Special Issue in Tourism Geographies is a coherent collection of papers plus a short introduction on a specific topic that is appropriate to the aims and scope of the journal and has a broad international appeal. While the editors of Tourism Geographies may initiate a special issue, it is more common to have a Special Issue that draws on the skills and talents of guest editors who are willing to devote a high level of focus and enthusiasm to achieve a successful outcome. The journal, therefore, welcomes innovative proposals of high quality and relevance from prospective individuals or teams.
A Special Issue should be similar to a well-edited book, with attention being given to the range and mix of article types, as well as to the inclusion of a state-of-the-art review article that is developed or led by an accomplished scholar. Special issues may have a Call-for-Papers (CFP) that will also be published on the TG website, to which potential authors can be referred. Alternatively, guest editors may invite potential contributors independently.
A Special issue will not fill an entire issue of the journal. You may have up to eight (8) papers at 7,500 words each (approximately 15 pages) plus a short introduction at 3000 words. The goal is to keep the special issue to 125 page maximum. These word counts include the abstract, references, tables, and figures. Page length does vary among papers, but 500 words per page is a good guideline overall. As the guest editor, you can require authors to write shorted papers (4000 to 6000 words) so that you can have more papers in your special issue.
The primary responsibilities of the guest editor(s) includes:
(1) The guest editor(s) initially contacts the Co-Editors in Chief for Tourism Geographies (TG) to inquire about potential interest in the topic of the proposed special issue. This should address the goals of the Special Issue, who the market will be for the special issue, and information on the qualifications of the guest editor(s).
The title of the special issue should be carefully crafted so that it is easily "discoverable" in online searches. Please review the Taylor & Francis Guide to Discoverability for help in selecting your title.
The guest editors must provide evidence of their ability to properly evaluate the rigor of papers to meet the standards of Tourism Geographies.
(2) After the topic is deemed suitable for the journal, then the guest editor(s) send their CfP to potential authors and email lists to solicit potential abstracts. The guest editors must review the abstracts they receive to ensure that they are appropriate to the topic and have the potential to survive the anonymous review process. Proposals that do not match the theme or have other issues that make them questionable should be rejected as not suitable for the special issue. Once the initial set of papers is determined, a list of authors and draft titles is sent to the TG Co-Editors in Chief. (Abstracts are not required.)
Keep in mind:
(3) The guest editors works with the authors to pre-review the papers before they are formally submitted to TG.
(4) When formally submitting their papers to the journal (using ScholarOne), authors must check the "Special Issue" box and indicate the special issue topic. The special issue topic and guest editor(s) should also be mentioned in a cover letter to ensure that the paper is not treated as a regular submission. If these are not included, then the paper will likely be reviewed without consideration for the special issue. All papers will go through a mostly traditional double blind review process and only papers that are successful in that process will be published. Reviewers will be informed that the paper is being considered for a special issue.
(5) It is expected that all papers will have completed the review, revision and acceptance/rejection process within 18 months from the time that the special issue list of authors and titles was submitted to the TG Editor-In-Chief. The guest editor(s) should, therefore, establish some clear deadlines for contributing authors. Papers submitted to the special issue will be published online as they are accepted and copy edited. However, they will not appear in print until the last paper is accepted and processed, which can take a considerable length of time, depending on the individual author. The print version of the Special Issue usually appears 2 years after the initial CfP has been announced. Guest editors need to be aware that they are committing themselves to a fairly long process to see the special issue through to its completion.
(6) The guest editor(s) will be given access to ScholarOne to undertake the review process. Note that at least a third of the potential reviewers will decline an invitation to review the paper. Do not ask authors to recommend their own reviewers. Do not use authors who are contributing to your Special Issue to review other contributions. Also, do not use members of the TG Editorial Board.
(7) The guest editor(s) is required to write an introduction to the special issue. This introduction is treated as an editorial of up to 3000 words. It does not have an abstract and is not sent for review.
(8) If there are other papers that have been recently accepted for publication in TG that are closely related to the special issue topic, they may be include in the same issue. Please discuss this with the one of the TG Editors in Chief. Such papers will not be counted in te maximum 115 pages for the special issue.
(9) Based on recent experience, due 1/10/21 guest editors give authors from 3 to 5 months to submit their full papers after the guest editors have done the initial review and selection based on the abstracts they have received. Papers submitted to TG are published online soon after they are fully accepted by the anonymou review process. On average, however, special issues have been appearing in final print form about 2 years after the initial CFP has been issued. Please consider also publishing your special issue as a book (see below).
Please contact one of the TG Co-Editors in Chief, if you have any questions about this process.
A Special Issue should be similar to a well-edited book, with attention being given to the range and mix of article types, as well as to the inclusion of a state-of-the-art review article that is developed or led by an accomplished scholar. Special issues may have a Call-for-Papers (CFP) that will also be published on the TG website, to which potential authors can be referred. Alternatively, guest editors may invite potential contributors independently.
A Special issue will not fill an entire issue of the journal. You may have up to eight (8) papers at 7,500 words each (approximately 15 pages) plus a short introduction at 3000 words. The goal is to keep the special issue to 125 page maximum. These word counts include the abstract, references, tables, and figures. Page length does vary among papers, but 500 words per page is a good guideline overall. As the guest editor, you can require authors to write shorted papers (4000 to 6000 words) so that you can have more papers in your special issue.
The primary responsibilities of the guest editor(s) includes:
- Identifying authors interested in writing acceptable papers and securing their participation,
- Ensuring the acceptability among proposed contributions,
- Working with the authors to ensure that the initial submissions meet appropriate conceptual and methodological standards, and are submitted on time and in proper format,
- Finding reviewers for submitted papers, and
- Writing an introduction for the Special Issue.
(1) The guest editor(s) initially contacts the Co-Editors in Chief for Tourism Geographies (TG) to inquire about potential interest in the topic of the proposed special issue. This should address the goals of the Special Issue, who the market will be for the special issue, and information on the qualifications of the guest editor(s).
The title of the special issue should be carefully crafted so that it is easily "discoverable" in online searches. Please review the Taylor & Francis Guide to Discoverability for help in selecting your title.
The guest editors must provide evidence of their ability to properly evaluate the rigor of papers to meet the standards of Tourism Geographies.
(2) After the topic is deemed suitable for the journal, then the guest editor(s) send their CfP to potential authors and email lists to solicit potential abstracts. The guest editors must review the abstracts they receive to ensure that they are appropriate to the topic and have the potential to survive the anonymous review process. Proposals that do not match the theme or have other issues that make them questionable should be rejected as not suitable for the special issue. Once the initial set of papers is determined, a list of authors and draft titles is sent to the TG Co-Editors in Chief. (Abstracts are not required.)
Keep in mind:
- Guest editors should only select papers that (a) have a a strong tie to the theme , (b) present a topic that is interesting for reviewers and readers, (c) is theoretically well developed, and (d) would likely to be well written and submitted on time (some guest editors request an author bio to confirm this)
- Some of the accepted abstracts will not be submitted as papers in a timely manner. This can be a serious problem and cause significant delay in the special issue's publication.
- Some papers will be rejected by the review process, either because the paper's quality was poor or because the maximum number of pages allowed for the special issue has been reached. Authors should be informed of this policy before the submit their papers.
(3) The guest editors works with the authors to pre-review the papers before they are formally submitted to TG.
- The guest editors want to make sure that the papers are strong enough to potentially survive the review process after they submitted to the journal. Some papers will be ready from the first draft; others may take a couple of drafts to be acceptable. Some may never reach an acceptable standard, and should be rejected or otherwise removed from the special issue by the guest editors.
- Do not allow papers to move forward that will clearly not meet the standards of Tourism Geographies, in the opinions of the guest editors.
- Please ask the authors to format their papers based on the TG Notes for Contributors. All authors must use these guidelines, along with papers that have been recently published in the journal, to format their papers. Failure to do so can cause significant delays in publishing a paper.
- In addition to the TG Notes for Contributors, guest editor(s) are encouraged to share the following website with authors to help them to properly orient their papers to minimize simple case studies: How To Avoid a Desk Rejection: Forget the Case Study
(4) When formally submitting their papers to the journal (using ScholarOne), authors must check the "Special Issue" box and indicate the special issue topic. The special issue topic and guest editor(s) should also be mentioned in a cover letter to ensure that the paper is not treated as a regular submission. If these are not included, then the paper will likely be reviewed without consideration for the special issue. All papers will go through a mostly traditional double blind review process and only papers that are successful in that process will be published. Reviewers will be informed that the paper is being considered for a special issue.
(5) It is expected that all papers will have completed the review, revision and acceptance/rejection process within 18 months from the time that the special issue list of authors and titles was submitted to the TG Editor-In-Chief. The guest editor(s) should, therefore, establish some clear deadlines for contributing authors. Papers submitted to the special issue will be published online as they are accepted and copy edited. However, they will not appear in print until the last paper is accepted and processed, which can take a considerable length of time, depending on the individual author. The print version of the Special Issue usually appears 2 years after the initial CfP has been announced. Guest editors need to be aware that they are committing themselves to a fairly long process to see the special issue through to its completion.
(6) The guest editor(s) will be given access to ScholarOne to undertake the review process. Note that at least a third of the potential reviewers will decline an invitation to review the paper. Do not ask authors to recommend their own reviewers. Do not use authors who are contributing to your Special Issue to review other contributions. Also, do not use members of the TG Editorial Board.
(7) The guest editor(s) is required to write an introduction to the special issue. This introduction is treated as an editorial of up to 3000 words. It does not have an abstract and is not sent for review.
- There is a specific paper type called "Issue Introduction" that is to be used for this.
(8) If there are other papers that have been recently accepted for publication in TG that are closely related to the special issue topic, they may be include in the same issue. Please discuss this with the one of the TG Editors in Chief. Such papers will not be counted in te maximum 115 pages for the special issue.
(9) Based on recent experience, due 1/10/21 guest editors give authors from 3 to 5 months to submit their full papers after the guest editors have done the initial review and selection based on the abstracts they have received. Papers submitted to TG are published online soon after they are fully accepted by the anonymou review process. On average, however, special issues have been appearing in final print form about 2 years after the initial CFP has been issued. Please consider also publishing your special issue as a book (see below).
Please contact one of the TG Co-Editors in Chief, if you have any questions about this process.
Publishing a Special Issue as a Book
Taylor and Francis will often consider publishing a special issue of a journal as a separate hard cover book about 6 to 9 months after the journal issue comes out. The main criteria are that the special issue did well in journal format, is over 110 pages in length, and contains mostly non-Open Access articles. No new material will be allowed to be added to the book version. This is a relatively easy process and Guest Editor(s) are encouraged to write a proposal (use this form) and submit it to one of the TG Co-Editors in Chief to start the process.
Note that you will need to provide copyright permission forms for all figures and other material in the article included in the book. While such permissions are also required for journal articles, the authors are not required to submit them formally as part of the journal article review and publication process. However, these forms are required for the book process.
Taylor and Francis will often consider publishing a special issue of a journal as a separate hard cover book about 6 to 9 months after the journal issue comes out. The main criteria are that the special issue did well in journal format, is over 110 pages in length, and contains mostly non-Open Access articles. No new material will be allowed to be added to the book version. This is a relatively easy process and Guest Editor(s) are encouraged to write a proposal (use this form) and submit it to one of the TG Co-Editors in Chief to start the process.
Note that you will need to provide copyright permission forms for all figures and other material in the article included in the book. While such permissions are also required for journal articles, the authors are not required to submit them formally as part of the journal article review and publication process. However, these forms are required for the book process.
