Special Issue Proposal Submission

Procedure for Submitting Special Issue Proposal

1. Identify a suitable topic for the special issue. Any topic within the Scope of the Signal Processing Society is appropriate, although special preference is given to new and emerging areas. Approval for subjects that have already been the focus of special issues in other journals will be difficult to obtain. Keep in mind that a typical issue of J-STSP will consist of about 170-190 printed pages, corresponding to about 14-16 papers of 12 pages each plus the editorial and guest editor bios. A topic must be broad enough to capture a sufficient number of submissions to support this size of an issue, but not so broad that the acceptance rate is unacceptably low. Recognizing that such things are difficult to predict, a target acceptance rate would be in the 35-50% range, which suggests that 30-50 submissions is optimal.
2. Assemble a team of 3-5 Guest Editors (GEs), with one individual identified as the Lead GE. The GEs should be established researchers in the focus area of the special issue, or a closely-allied discipline. At a minimum, the GEs should have several years of post-Ph.D. experience, and a signficant track record of relevant technical publications. We follow the SP Society's suggested qualifications for guest editors of special issues -- basically, the qualifications are the same as that of an associate editor for the Transactions: someone who has at least 5-6 years of post-Ph.D. experience (e.g., the equivalent of an associate professor with tenure in academia). It is also desirable for the GE team to be technically and geographically balanced.
3. Submit a single PDF file with the special issue proposal to the Editor-in-Chief of JSTSP containing the following information:
   • Topic of the proposed special issue placing it in the context of the Signal Processing Society (note that not all of the members of the editorial board who review the proposal will be experts in your topic area). The proposal should describe why the proposed topic is relevant, broad enough and timely, why it is of interest to the society's readership, how it may stimulate the interest of readers from other IEEE societies, what the current state-of-the-art is in the area, what open problems have yet to be addressed, most relevant applications addressed, etc.
   • The proposal should also analyze the potential redundancy with past and future special issues, research groups around the world who would be potential contributors to the special issue, and suggested tutorial/reviews papers that could be invited (indicating possible titles and authors).
   • A one-half page bio-sketch for each of the guest editors, similar to those that appear with a published Transactions paper. The bios should be careful to identify aspects of the guest editors' backgrounds that are relevant to the topic of the special issue and the level of seniority of the GEs (e.g. date of PhD). The Web page of each GE must be provided. The proposal should also explain how the GE team is complementary and diverse in terms of areas addressed within the topic, geography and gender.
   • A draft single-page Call-for-Papers that summarizes the scope of the proposed special issue, lists the specific topics to be covered, gives a suggested timetable for paper submission and review (the actual timetable will be negotiated with the Editor-in-Chief upon approval of the proposal), and provides contact information for the GEs.

Proposal Approval Process

Upon receipt, the Editor-in-Chief circulates the proposal to the Senior Editorial Board for their comments. Depending on this feedback, the proposal may be approved, rejected (with appropriate supporting reasons), or returned to the GEs for additional information. Usually this process will take no more than 2-3 weeks.

SI Proposal Assessment Criteria

A. Relevance
How relevant is the proposed topic? How relevant is the topic for the signal processing society? How important are the available results?

B. Timeliness
How timely is the topic? Have there been significant contributions to the area during the last 5/10 years?

C. Applications
What applications or theoretical tools are relevant to the current proposal? How could these applications/tools benefit the signal processing community?

D. Broadness
How broad is the research appeal? Are there strong research groups in a significant number of different countries working in the area?

E. Cross-communities
Does this special issue have the possibility of eliciting interest from other IEEE societies, thus increasing the basis of potential authors and readership?

F. Redundancy
Have there been previous special issues in this area in other publications, notably IEEE Transactions? How successful were they in terms of readership/citations?

G. Target authors
Are there particular authors that should be targeted for this special issue, perhaps with an invited or tutorial paper (still subject to same rigorous reviewing process)?

H. Guest editors diversity
Do the guest editors present enough diversity in terms of topics coverage, gender and geography?

I. Guest editors qualifications
Do the guest editors have sufficient expertise and experience to properly handle reviews of papers in the proposed areas? Have the guest editors published in the area of the proposal or are they industry leaders in the area? Do all guest editors meet the minimum qualifications of being at-least 5 years since a PhD?

• Responsibilities of Guest Editor