SSPH+ Special Issue Policy

DOAJ Criteria 1. The Editor-in-Chief must be responsible for the content of the entire journal, including all special issues, which must fall within the scope of the journal

PHR and IJPH are each led by a team of three Editors-in-Chief, who are fully responsible for all journal content. The Editors-in-Chief lead the journals’ editorial boards, which review special issue proposals. Additionally, all manuscripts that are recommended for acceptance by a Handling Editor must be approved by an Editor-in-Chief before being published, regardless of whether they have been submitted to a special issue or are regular submissions.

Special issue topics always fall within the scope of the journal. IJPH and PHR both maintain a pool of Associate Editors, who are appointed for a period of three years with the possibility of extension. Some of these Associate Editors take on the additional strategic duties of the Senior Editor role. Special Issues topics are usually suggested from within the journals’ Associate and Senior Editor community. IJPH and PHR are the society journals of the Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), and both journals welcome special issue proposals from SSPH+ faculty members. In addition, PHR is edited in partnership with the Association of Schools of Public Health of the European Region (ASPHER), and also welcomes special issue proposals from the ASPHER community. Regardless of their source, special issue proposals are reviewed by the Editors-in­-Chief, the Editorial Board and the Managing Editor at one of the regular Editorial Board Meetings. Any Special Issue proposals that are not deemed to meet the journal scope are rejected, or revisions are requested. 

DOAJ Criteria 2. Special issue articles must have the same editorial oversight as regular papers, including external peer review, and be clearly labelled.

IJPH and PHR are independent society journals owned and published by the non-profit Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+) using the systems and services of Frontiers. The journals are managed by a fully independent editorial office based at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH). The Managing Editor and Editorial Assistant at Swiss TPH oversee all editorial processes, in conjunction with each journal’s permanent editorial board of Editors-in-Chief and Senior Editors.

Part of this oversight involves ensuring that there is no difference whatsoever in the editorial processes that are applied to Special Issues and regular papers. All “peer reviewed” article types are sent to external peer review by experts in the area, regardless of whether they have been submitted to a special issue or not. Additionally, all manuscripts must be reviewed and endorsed by a journal Editor-in-Chief prior to publication.

DOAJ Criteria 3. Journals must ensure that guest editors’ credentials are checked and approved

Guest editors of IJPH and PHR special issues are recognised experts in the relevant subject area who are suggested by the lead special issue editor. Prior to any special issue call being launched, the Editorial office at Swiss TPH and the Publisher’s Office (Frontiers) perform a series of checks to ensure that Guest editors hold reliable credentials. This includes a review of the editor’s academic record and history, and a review of their previous interactions with the publisher. Both the Independent Editorial Office and the Publisher’s office must approve guest editors before they are added to a call.

DOAJ Criteria 4. The Editor-in-Chief or dedicated board members must oversee the guest editors

The vast majority of special Issue calls in IJPH and PHR are led by an experienced editor from within the journals’ editorial community, usually a Senior Editor or Editor-in-Chief. Regardless of who the lead call editor is, guest editors are overseen by the Editors-in-Chief, Managing Editor and Editorial Board at all times. Additionally, any manuscript that is recommend for acceptance by a Guest Editor must be reviewed and endorsed by an Editor-in-Chief before being published.

DOAJ Criteria 5. Papers submitted to a special issue by the guest editor(s) must be handled under an independent review process and make up no more than 25% of the issue's total

Guest editors rarely submit manuscripts to their own special issues in IJPH or PHR. At the time of writing, IJPH has hosted 21 Special Issues, leading to 308 publications. Only 17 (6%) of these were written by editors of the special issue. Of these, seven were “special issue editorials”, where the editors are specifically invited to write an editorial that places the published special issue manuscripts in the context of current knowledge. PHR has hosted six Special Issues, leading to 51 publications. Only four (8%) of these were written by editors of the special issue, one of which was a special issue editorial.

As in the case of regular submissions, submissions that are co-authored by any IJPH or PHR editor are independently handled by a different journal editor, and are subject to the same rigorous peer review procedures as all other submissions. This process has resulted in the rejection of a number of manuscripts submitted by Associate Editors, both as regular and special issue papers.