Propose a Special Issue

Proposals may be developed by anyone having interest and expertise in a technical area within the scope of the IEEE Information Theory Society.

All IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Information Theory (JSAIT) issues begin life as a proposal. Proposals may be developed by anyone having interest and expertise in a technical area within the scope of JSAIT . Each issue of JSAIT is devoted to topics at the intersection of information theory with fields such as machine learning, statistics, genomics, neuroscience, theoretical computer science, and physics. Any field that utilizes the fundamentals of information theory are excellent candidates for JSAIT special issues. There will also be special issues for new and emerging topics firmly within the field of information theory.

A number of stimuli give rise to quality proposals. Proposals typically come from individuals having expertise in an emerging technical or interdisciplinary area who also wish to make a significant technical contribution by bringing together the expertise of others working in the same area. The success of JSAIT depends upon a continuing flow of quality proposals. Any of the JSAIT editors can help with proposal preparation.

Information to be Provided

The proposal should have the following information and structure:

  1. The topic and scope of the proposed issue should be carefully identified. It is important to describe why the proposed topic is timely and significant.

  2. A brief outline of the topics for the proposed issue should be given, indicating the areas in which papers will be solicited.

  3. A plan for obtaining quality papers should be given, indicating the potential sources of both tutorial and research papers.

  4. The Guest Editors should be identified. (JSAIT issues usually involve 4-6 Guest Editors.) If possible Guest Editors should be selected so that a good technical, geographical and gender balance is achieved.

  5. The proposed review process should be described, and list of potential reviewers should be included with the proposal. (A peer-review process is essential to the development of a quality issue.)

  6. The proposed call-for-papers should be included.

  7. A brief resume of the proposed Guest Editors should be included

General Information

The two essential ingredients of a successful issue of JSAIT are a timely topic and Guest Editors who are willing and able to develop the proposed topic. Each issue of J-SAC will include about 12-25  papers. The Guest Editors are responsible for developing an editorial which establishes the perspective of the issue and introduces the papers. This editorial is the first item in the issue. Ideally each special issue will include 1-2 peer-reviewed tutorial papers which provides an overview of the subject area along with the key developments in the field. These tutorials are expected to be of broad interest to researchers and practitioners working in information theory and in fields that use information-theoretic techniques.   

Duties of the Guest Editor

After approval of a proposal, the first duty of the Guest Editors is to establish a tentative publication schedule with the JSAIT EiC . The normal lead time is 12-24 months.

The next duty of the Guest Editors is the extremely important task of paper solicitation and review. In addition to the solicitation process identified by the Guest Editors, it is important that a call-for-papers be published in the publications of ITSoc and in the fields that the special issue overlaps with. The Call for Papers is prepared by the Guest Editors and briefly describes the topics to be addressed and identifies all deadlines associated with publication of the issue.

The Guest Editors are in charge of the review process and make the important decisions on which papers are to be published. The JSAIT Senior Editors and EiC are available for consultation. The Guest Editors conduct all correspondence with the authors and oversee all revisions required or suggested by the reviewers. The Guest Editors notify the authors of accepted papers, along with any overlength page charges or violations of the maximum page length.

Disposition of the Proposal

All proposals should be submitted to the . The JSAIT Editorial Board consisting of the EiC and Senior Editors will make every attempt to arrive at a timely decision on the proposal, and the proposer will be notified of the decision by the EiC. At that time one or more JSAIT Senior Editors will be assigned to work with the Guest Editors on development of the issue. If a proposer has questions on the development of the proposal, or needs help in some part of the process, they are invited to contact the JSAIT EiC or any of the JSAIT Senior Editors.

Submitting a Paper to Your Own Issue

JSAIT encourages tutorial or original research papers authored by guest editors. A Guest Editor may submit at most one such paper as author or co-author to a special issue they are guest editing.  The review process for this paper will be handled by the overseeing Senior Editor and held to a higher standard of excellence than a normal submission.