Special-Issue Oversight & Guest-Editor Checks — per special issue

Overview

A guest editor you have never met proposes a special issue, brings in forty papers in three months, and you find out afterward that the reviewers were fictional and the authors paid someone to get in. Indexers have delisted journals for exactly this, and the editor-in-chief who approved the proposal in good faith carries the consequences. This service puts checks around the special-issue process from proposal to post-publication audit, so that a journal can run special issues without handing over control. It is for journals that publish or want to publish special issues, thematic sections or conference collections, and for publishers that oversee several journals doing so.

What’s Included

• Guest-editor due diligence: identity, affiliation, publication record, ORCID, prior editorial roles, conflicts of interest and any retraction or misconduct history in public records
• Proposal review: scope fit with the journal, realistic timeline, author sourcing plan, and a written recommendation to the editor-in-chief
• Oversight protocol: written rules covering who can invite reviewers, who sees reviews, how guest editors’ own papers are handled, and the requirement that the editor-in-chief or a designated board member approves every acceptance
• In-flight monitoring: periodic checks on reviewer identities, review turnaround and acceptance rates during the issue’s production
• Post-issue audit: a report on the published issue covering author and reviewer patterns, citation behavior, and compliance with the protocol
• A template call for papers and guest-editor agreement the journal can reuse

How It Works

1. The journal sends the special-issue proposal and the names of the proposed guest editors.
2. We complete due diligence and the proposal review, normally within ten working days, and the editor-in-chief decides whether to proceed.
3. If approved, we set up the oversight protocol with the editorial office and guest editors.
4. We monitor during the issue and deliver the post-issue audit after publication.
5. Pricing is per special issue. Publishers with several journals can arrange a standing agreement covering all special issues.

What Stays With Your Editors

The editor-in-chief approves the proposal, retains authority over every acceptance in the issue and can halt the issue at any point. Guest editors work within the protocol the journal sets. NeucitePress checks, monitors and reports; the journal’s editors select reviewers, assess manuscripts and decide.

Important Limitations

• Due diligence draws on public records and verifiable sources. It reduces the risk of an unsuitable guest editor; it does not guarantee good conduct.
• The oversight protocol works only if the journal’s system enforces it. We help configure OJS or similar systems to do so; email-based workflows are harder to control.
• A post-issue audit may surface problems that require correction or retraction. Executing those is covered by Publication Ethics Case Handling.
• We do not recruit guest editors or solicit papers for the issue.

Common Questions

Do we need this for every special issue? Journals that publish special issues regularly benefit most from a standing protocol. A single proposal from an unknown guest editor is the highest-risk case.

Can the audit be shared with an indexer? Yes. It is written so that it can support a response to an indexer’s inquiry about the journal’s special-issue practices.

What if the guest editor is a board member we know well? The checks are lighter, but the protocol still applies; most special-issue problems arise in the process, not from the person who proposed it.

Request a proposal, or begin with the Journal Health Check.