Guest Editor Guidelines

Special theme issues of BC Studies on varied topics have appeared regularly over the years and many have had lasting popularity and importance. A list of past special issues can be found on our website: http://www.bcstudies.com/issues/special-issues

 

Developing a Special Issue

Generally, Special Issues emerge from the initiative of individuals who bring a proposal to BCS with the intention of serving as guest editors. We ask that Special Issues are guest edited by a pairing of a senior scholar and a junior scholar. There is no format for such a proposal. However, we encourage early contact, especially as we usually have Special Issues scheduled for two or more years ahead, and try to avoid the publication of two SIs in a single year. Proposals should identify the theme of the proposed issue, explain why it is pertinent to the readership of BC Studies and provide a brief assessment of its intended contribution to provincial scholarship. Proposals may include a list of potential contributors and short abstracts of their proposed papers. Special Issues will feature peer-reviewed articles and may include other formats such as Research Notes, Soundworks, New Media and Digital Stories, Roundtable Discussions, Case Comments, Interviews, and Reflections. For specific number and length of articles see below.

Where necessary, and with sufficient lead time, it is also possible to post a “Call for [additional] Papers” on Facebook, Twitter and our website, and to print the CFP in a preceding issue of BC Studies.

 

Guest Editor role

As guest editors, we ask that you read all potential contributions and make a preliminary assessment (and make recommendations to the author if you feel this is necessary) to enhance the chances of passing through peer review. All articles submitted must be vetted by the Guest Editors for suitability for inclusion. Please ensure that all submissions conform to our guidelines in length and format, and are anonymized for blind peer-review. Submission guidelines can be found here:

https://bcstudies.arts.ubc.ca/submissions/submission-guidelines/

The BCS office will handle the refereeing process and will send electroinc invitations using OJS. We ask that you identify a list of three potential reviewers for each article submitted although the final choice of reviewers will be made by the BC Studies editors. The list may include local, national, and international experts in the field, but it may not include contributors to the special issue. Please note that reviewers may asses only one article per special issue to ensure there is no overlap.

Guest editors will be set up within our OJS system and invitations for peer-review will be sent our by the journal office under the guest editors’ names. Each peer-reviewed submission will go out to two reviewers. Normally, the BCS editors will wait until the two peer review assessments have been received before reviewing them. Once read, the BCS editors will write to the Guest Editors should they have any concerns, advice, and suggestions for revisions. The guest editors will then communicate with the authors and expedite the next draft as soon as possible.

Once the final draft of a manuscript has been approved by the Guest Editors and uploaded to OJS, the BCS editors will evaluate the article for final acceptance before it is sent to copyediting. Guest Editors are invited to communicate openly with journal staff and editors throughtout the process to ensure an open dialogue.

 

Number and Length of Articles

A regular issue of BC Studies is 192 pages. Of these, 50 pages are allocated to the TOC, editorial/ introduction, book reviews, bibliography, and contributors’ bios. This leaves 142 pages for the articles.

A Special Issue should normally consist of a minimum of 5 articles on a focused topic, plus an introduction by the guest editor(s). The introduction will not be sent out for peer review but it will be subject to the comment and suggestions of the journal editors. No Special Issue should include more than eight articles  — or exceed a total of 50,000 words(including notes and illustrations, see BCS Submission Guidelines) without additional funding to cover extra costs incurred in copy-editing, layout, proofreading, and publication.

Guest editors are advised to “recruit” at least six submissions, because delays in the review/ revision process or rejection by reviewers can otherwise jeopardize the Special Issue. Equally, editors should be cautious in committing to submissions in excess of this number, unless authors fully understand the need for shorter papers.

Submission guidelines can be found on our website at:https://www.bcstudies.com/?q=submissions/submission-guidelines

The average article length is thirty-five to forty double-spaced pages in Word (this includes footnotes, references, illustrations, photographs, maps, and tables, and is equivalent to approximately 9000 words). When published in BC Studies this translates to 27 journal pages. Shorter and longer submissions will be considered. If 7 articles are to be included in a Special Issue they should average 19 journal pages (26 pp in Word) or 6500 words.

PLEASE NOTE: each full page table, map, photo, or other illustration is equivalent when published to 450 words; a half page figure is equivalent to 225 words.

 

Maps, Photos and Other Illustrations

Authors are asked to submit high resolution figures to accompany their article.  Figures can be uploaded to OJS as supplementary files or can be sent directly to the Managing Editor by email to: info@bcstudies.com. We can accept Jpeg or Tiff files that are a minimum 300 dpi. It is up to the author to seek permission and pay fees for the use of any image that is protected under copyright. If an author requires assistance the managing editor will be happy to help.

All figures require a short descriptive caption and acknowledgement of their source.

 

Submissions via OJS

Once articles have met the guest editors’s approval for submission to the journal, authors should submit their manuscripts online through the Open Journal System (OJS).

To submit an article, please direct authors to: www.bcstudies.com/ojs

Authors must first register and then follow the submission instructions. Should you need assistance with uploading manuscripts, please contact Leanne Coughlin, Managing Editor at info@bcstudies.com.

 

Deadlines

BC Studies is an on-time quarterly publication. We submit material to the printers as per the attached schedule. This means it is important to follow the deadlines we have established to ensure that articles intended for the Special Issue are not left by the wayside because they are not fully ready for copy-editing and the tightly linked and closely scheduled sequential steps that follow. (Should an accepted article be delayed and thus excluded from the Special Issue, BC Studies will publish it in a subsequent regular issue).

 

Publication Schedule

	Spring	Summer	Autumn	Winter
Submission deadline	Aug 1	Nov 1	Feb 1	May 1
Peer review	Oct 1	Jan 1	April 1	July 1
Editor comments to Author	Oct 20	Jan 20	April 20	July 20
Author revisions	Dec 15	March 15	June 15	Sept 15
Editor – author revisions	Jan 15	April 15	July 15	Oct 15
articles to copyeditor by	Feb 1	May 1	Aug 1	Nov 1
author response to C-E version	Feb – March	May-June	Aug-Sept	Nov-Dec
layout
proofreading
Introduction due	March 1	June 1	Sept 1	Dec 1
Issue to printer	March 15	June 15	Sept 15	Dec 15
Special issue published	April 30	July 30	Oct 30	Jan 30

Cover

Guest Editors are asked to select an image for the cover of the Special Issue. BC Studiesis able to cover image reprint permission fees in accordance with CARFAC which amounts to $200. Cover artists are invited to submit a short artist statement for our section The Front.

This Space Here

Guest Editors are invited to select a contribution for This Space Here – a section of the journal that includes complelling excerpts about current events and subsject drawn from informal media sources. For examples in past issues, please visit our website: https://bcstudies.arts.ubc.ca/issues/this-space-here/

Promotion of the Special Issue

Working with the BC Studies Marketing Assistant, we ask that you help identify a target audience for your special issue. Your help in identifying upcoming conferences and other special events that might attract new readers is especially welcome, and we will appreciate the addresses of colleagues, specialists and, interested institutions to alert them to the issue’s impending publication. We will send out a notice upon publication of your special issue via our website, twitter account, and Facebook page. We also ask that you contribute a short promo piece for our BCS Blog. We encourage you to repost any notices to help publicize the publication to reach as wide of an audience as possible. Please contact our office for your marketing ideas and question at sales@bcstudies.com.

 

Author Discounts

Authors and Editors can purchase copies of the issue at a 25% discount. Retail price of a single issue is $20 and the author discount is $15 plus GST. We welcome pre-orders. Please contact our office to place an order: sales@bcstudies.com