Theory, Culture & Society: Special Issue & Special Section Proposals
Theory, Culture & Society regularly produces special issues and sections. We welcome proposals from prospective special issue editors.
1. Range of Interests
Theory, Culture & Society is an interdisciplinary journal and TCS special issues and sections should reflect the wide span of our interests. Theory, Culture & Society has published a large number of special issues spanning a wide range of topics. We encourage prospective editors to review these before submitting their own proposal.
2. How to Submit a Proposal
Proposals should be emailed to the editorial office at tcs@sagepub.co.uk.
The proposal needs to provide a rationale (1-1,500 words in length), outlining the main thematic areas to be addressed, including a specific section on the proposal’s fit with the aims and scope of the journal. The proposal should include draft titles and abstracts of articles, along with biographical notes for authors and editors.
All special issue/section proposals are considered on the understanding that they are not under consideration elsewhere.
We aim to turn around all proposals within two months. During this time, we may need to obtain reviews from external referees, which can take up to one month.
3. Length
A special issue should normally contain 7-9 articles (between 7,000 and 8,000 words, including notes and references).
A special section should normally contain 4-6 articles (between 7,000 and 8,000 words, including notes and references).
It is expected that editors of both special issues and sections will provide full-length introductions (7-9,000 words for special issues, 5-7,000 words for sections).
4. Review Articles
As part of the set, it would be possible to substitute one or two review articles. Book reviews will not normally be included.
5. Pre-submission Editing
It is expected that special issue editors will have reviewed and commented on drafts of all the papers before submission. This could necessitate some authors producing substantially revised versions prior to submission for review. Such an approach helps to ensure work is of an appropriate standard, ready for peer review. It is also important that contributors present work that is both pertinent to the theme of the special issue and connects sufficiently with the overall aims and scope of the journal.
6. Submission Procedure
Once special issue editors are happy with the full set of papers they should encourage authors to submit following the guidelines below.
It would be helpful is papers are submitted at approximately the same time. Or failing this, every effort made to submit in two batches and avoid protracted submission of papers over a year or so.
Normally it is expected that all papers will be submitted within 6 months of the acceptance of the proposal. Should there be an extensive period of inactivity after the proposal has been accepted – one year or more – then it will be assumed that the issue is not taking place. If special issue editors want to re-activate the issue after this point, a new proposal will be required.
Contributors need to submit all papers by uploading their manuscripts. Authors should consult our Submission Guidelines (https://journals.sagepub.com/author-instructions/TCS) for details of the paper uploading procedures.
It is important that authors make sure that their paper has the correct special issue (SI) or special section (SS) suffix. This is done by selecting the correct Manuscript Type for the special issue/section from the dropdown menu in the TCS Manuscript Central author centre (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tcs).
All papers should be formatted in TCS house style.
7. Refereeing procedures
Once a proposal has been accepted, each article should be submitted separately by the individual authors (see our Submission Guidelines).
All papers that appear in TCS are blind refereed. With special issues we would ask editors to nominate a set of referees. Papers will also be refereed by regular TCS referees. Each paper will be discussed in detail by TCS editors at editorial meetings.
Special issue editors should recognise that Theory, Culture & Society receives a high number of papers each year and is only able to publish a small percentage. Although we wish to support the initiative of special issue editors in commissioning papers, the final decision on any paper will be made by editors and the editorial board in accordance with the journal’s normal review procedures.
Through the review process, special issue editors should expect a significant number of papers that they have solicited to be turned down or to need revision. The journal seeks to maintain its high standard in both special issues and ordinary issues, and to this end takes seriously the views of referees and editorial board members. This has been the case from the early issues of the journal and has been a necessary part of the process of maintaining the high quality of the papers published in Theory, Culture & Society.
Special issue editors will be provided with draft decision letters from the journal editor along with referees’ reports, and have the opportunity to provide feedback and raise queries before the letters are formally sent to authors. Special issue editors can of course send their own additional comments and guidance to authors.
8. Timetable
It is best to allow 24 months for the whole process from start to finish:
Month 1-2 – submit proposal, editorial board feedback and if proposal accepted confirm with authors.
Months 2-3 – submit revised proposal if required. Authors send draft papers to special issue editors for pre-submission comments.
Months 4-6 – first versions of papers submitted.
Months 6-9 – papers sent out to referees, comments in and then discussed at editorial board meeting; issue editor’s comments sent back to authors.
Months 10-13 – revised versions of papers in.
Months 14-18 – second round of refereeing and comments in and then discussed again at editorial board meeting.
Months 19-20 – issue goes to press.
Month 22 – proofs ready.
Month 24 – issue published.
Prospective editors of Special Issues or Special Sections for Theory, Culture & Society should email their proposals to: tcs@sagepub.co.uk.
NB. The journal editors reserve the right to re-visit the decision to proceed with a special issue if a number of the submitted papers do not meet the typical standards for publication, and/or if the development of the issue gets significantly delayed. In these cases, there would be consultation with the special issue editors to discuss and review matters.
(Updated: May 2021)