Call for Special Issues – Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies JEMS – deadline October 15

The Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (JEMS) accepts proposals for Special Issues on a twice-yearly basis. The next deadline by which proposals should be sent to the JEMS editorial team is 15th October 2016 (the one following this will be 15th March 2017).

Guest Editors who wish to submit a Special Issue should email a proposal to JEMS at jems.scmr@sussex.ac.uk by this date.

The Editorial team will consider the pool of Special Issue proposals received by this deadline and select those they consider to be of the highest quality. Their selection will be based upon which proposals in their judgement have the most potential in terms of:

–the quality of the individual papers,
–the proposed collection’s level of coherence, and –the extent to which the proposed Special Issue as a whole promises to be an original and creative contribution to the field.

Proposals should be a maximum of 4,000 words long in total and should include the following information:

–Full contact details and a short biography of the Guest Editor(s).
–A proposed title for the Special Issue.
–A rationale, which should address: the theoretical and empirical content of the Special Issue; the basis for its claim to originality; its relationship to existing literature and how it will advance knowledge; and its importance to the interdisciplinary field of ethnic and migration studies. As a general guideline, the rationale should be set out in no more than about 1,000 words or two single-spaced pages.
–A list of contributors, with institutional affiliations, and a confirmation of their commitment to the Issue.
–Abstracts for each paper.
–Details of the origin of the proposal, e.g., a workshop, conference, research project, research network. Papers should have been presented or discussed in the framework of such a workshop or conference.
–The stage of development of the proposed issue, including clear milestones for its completion. In particular please specify proposed deadlines for

*Submission of first drafts by individual authors to Guest Editors *Submission of revised papers to Guest Editors following one external review per paper *Submission of the draft Special Issue to the Editorial team for collective external review prior to final decision.

Review Procedure for Special Issues

Once a proposal has been accepted, Guest Editors are responsible for liaising with their authors and the JEMS editorial team throughout the process of paper submission and review. We encourage Guest Editors to ensure that as far as possible, the milestones for submission and re-submission of papers put forward in the original proposal are followed, although we recognise that some delays may be unavoidable.

In the first instance, Guest Editors should contact their authors to ask them to submit their articles. Once they have received an article, the Guest Editors select one external anonymous reviewer for each paper, sending reviewers the Special Issue proposal, the standardised review form that will have been provided by the JEMS editorial team, and an anonymised version of the paper.

Having received the comments from reviewers, Guest Editors should liaise with authors and make recommendations with regard to any revisions to be implemented, including those recommended by the external reviewer. Authors then resubmit their revised version to the Guest Editors with a note documenting the changes that have been made in responses to requested changes.

Once all revised papers have been received by the Guest Editors, they should send the entire collection of revised articles as well as the external reviews and author response letters to the JEMS Editorial team at jems.scmr@sussex.ac.uk in electronic form (Word).

As long as the collection is submitted to the JEMS team within the approximate timescale originally envisaged or no more than two years following acceptance of the proposal, the Editorial team will then send the whole issue out to an external reviewer for a collective review. This will include an assessment of the coherence and integrity of the collection as a Special Issue. This reviewer provides an evaluation to the Editorial team who will then report back to the Guest Editors with a view on the collection. Guest Editors will address any comments arising at this stage, before the Editorial team makes a final decision with regard to publication.