Guidelines For Guest Editors Of Special Issues/Focus Sections Of The JNE

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Prospective guest editors must submit a formal proposal for a special issue (completely themed; 9-10 articles for a regular issue; 17-20 for a Yearbook) or for a focus section within a regular issue (3-5 articles). The principal elements of this proposal should include the following:

  1. A statement of intent that succinctly describes the nature and scope of the topic to be covered, that describes its importance and/or uniqueness to the literature incident to the education of Black people generally and to the JNE specifically, and that identifies the audience for such an issue/focus, making projections and suggestions regarding its marketability to target groups.
  2. A brief description of the articles and authors to be included (indicate contributor affiliations).
  3. Abstracts (100-150 words) describing each article's approach and intent, along with a brief statement describing each article's relationship (convergence/divergence) to the other articles.
  4. A brief description of any book reviews and reviewers to be included.
  5. A timetable projecting the sequence by which guest editor will solicit, expect receipt, and perform preliminary editing of manuscripts, ending in submission of all materials to JNE at least three (3) months prior to issue date (month).
Guest Editor Responsibilities:
  1. Prepare, in conjunction with and with the approval of JNE editors, a letter soliciting prospective authors for contributions to the issue and including information on the Journal (its mission, standards, general publication guidelines, stylistic conventions, etc.).
  2. Obtain firm commitments from prospective authors, along with abstracts of their proposed articles, and brief biographical/contact information on each contributor, and to provide this information to JNE.
  3. Maintain contact with invited authors, keeping them apprised of submittal deadlines and other matters pertaining to the preparation of the issue.
  4. Receive invited articles from authors and conduct thorough preliminary editorial review and editing prior to acceptance to determine the articles' content quality and relevance as well as technical quality (scholarliness, readability, grammatical correctness, proper organization, appropriate citation and tabular presentation styles, etc.).
  5. Assist the JNE Associate Editor in obtaining the cooperation of authors during the manuscript preparation process (e.g., following up on editor inquiries about manuscripts; mediating author/editor disputes over editorial queries and copy-editing treatment; prompting authors to return copy-edited articles, galley corrections, and release forms in timely fashion, etc.).
  6. Prepare and submit a guest editorial (4-8 pages) or brief introduction statement for focus sections (2-4 pages) to accompany the articles, describing the guest editor(s) intent in presenting the articles, addressing the issue at hand, and/or summarizing the article themes.
  7. Recommend promotional avenues for the issue and assist the Journal Circulation Manager in contacting prospective purchasers/subscribers.
Prospective guest editors should note that though a proposal may be acceptable as a whole, individual articles may be deemed unacceptable upon review by the Journal's editors. Thus, the JNE retains the privilege of recommending to guest editors that an invited article(s) be rejected should it fail to meet JNE standards of quality, clarity, or scholarship, or require inordinate editing to bring up to standard or style.
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