Special Issues and Guest Editor Policy

Purpose

The Dyal Singh Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (DSJHSS) may publish guest-edited special issues where a focused theme can make a coherent scholarly contribution within the journal's established aims and scope.

Special issues are part of DSJHSS and are subject to the same standards of research integrity, editorial independence, open access, licensing and peer review as regular issues.

Approval of a Special Issue

A proposed special issue should have a clearly defined scholarly theme, rationale and proposed timetable. The journal will consider whether the topic fits its scope and whether the proposed guest editor or guest editors have appropriate academic expertise and professional standing.

Guest editors must be approved by the journal before undertaking editorial responsibility.

Editorial Oversight

The Editor-in-Chief remains responsible for the scholarly and ethical integrity of the journal as a whole, including special issues.

Guest editors work under the oversight of the Editor-in-Chief and/or designated members of the journal's editorial structure. DSJHSS retains authority to reject a special-issue proposal, reassign a manuscript, request additional review, require correction of a process, or discontinue a special issue where journal standards are not being met.

Peer Review

Research articles submitted to a special issue undergo the same double-blind external peer-review standards as regular research articles, including review by at least two independent subject experts.

Guest editors must not guarantee acceptance and must not bypass normal integrity, plagiarism, ethical or conflict-of-interest checks.

Special-issue articles must be clearly identified as belonging to the relevant special issue.

Conflicts of Interest

Guest editors must disclose relevant conflicts and must not handle manuscripts where their impartiality could reasonably be questioned.

A manuscript authored or co-authored by a guest editor must be assigned to an independent editor and must undergo an independent peer-review and decision process in which the authoring guest editor has no role.

Research papers submitted to a special issue by the guest editor or guest editors must not exceed 25% of the research papers in that special issue.

Responsibilities of Guest Editors

Guest editors are expected to:

·        act fairly and confidentially;

·        recommend suitably qualified and independent reviewers;

·        declare and manage conflicts;

·        communicate accurately with authors;

·        avoid coercive citation or preferential treatment; and

·        comply with DSJHSS publication-ethics and editorial policies.

Fees, Advertising and Sponsorship

The existence of a special issue does not alter the journal's author-fee policy unless a future change is publicly approved and disclosed before submission.

DSJHSS does not currently accept paid commercial advertising. Any future sponsorship associated with a special issue must be transparent and must not influence editorial decisions.

Final Authority

Final publication authority remains with DSJHSS under the oversight of the Editor-in-Chief and the journal's institutional management.