Editing a Theme Issue is a serious commitment but it offers a lot of freedom and responsibility to the guest editors of the issue. What we can offer you is a dedicated Theme Issue on the topic of your choice, guest-edited by you with your name on the cover. As guest editor, you have the freedom to choose the authors and suggest their titles and topics and to shape the whole issue as you see fit. We encourage guest editors to be creative about the kinds of articles included and to feature a range of articles in the issue. For example, these could include introductions or reviews on different aspects of the topic, new research, papers explaining the importance of the topic to the wider world or articles looking to the future.

After publication, you will receive 10 complimentary copies of the issue for you to distribute to colleagues and associates. You will be given free personal online access to all DCDS series for one year to follow the journals' development and to help promote the journals and your issue.

However, for all this to work effectively, it is essential that your responsibilities as a guest editor are clear. Most importantly, you are responsible for ensuring the quality of the issue. Here is the review procedure:

1.   All manuscripts should be submitted to you directly before the agreed submission deadline. Each article must contain an abstract and keywords. For refereeing purposes, you are free to set the file format in which you wish to receive submissions, but we would suggest a single PDF file so the articles are easy to send out to review.
2.   Each article must contain an abstract and keywords. For refereeing purposes, you are free to set the file format in which you wish to receive submissions, but we would suggest a single PDF file so the articles are easy to send out to review.
3.   You contact potential referees directly and obtain two detailed referee report on each manuscript in 2-3 month.
4.   You send your recommendation with referee reports to the Editorial Office. The editorial committee /EIC will make the decisions based on the recommendation and reports.
5.   You will do the following Depending on the Journal's decision:
      (1) Inform the author the rejection of the manuscript.
      (2) Inform the author the acceptance of the manuscript in its current form and ask the authors to prepare the final version using AIMS template. Please see the web page Tex file Prep. for instruction and files.
      (3) Ask the authors to revise accordingly and review the revision. Continue this process until the revision is acceptable by the reviewers and you. Then ask the authors to prepare the final version using AIMS template. Please see the web page Tex file Prep. for instruction and files.
6.   Authors submit the files for their final version using AIMS template online to Editorial Office by the agreed deadline for final editing and production.
7.   It is helpful that you supply potential cover images (and relevant captions) at this stage, although you may well be contacted later on during the production process with more precise criteria.

Features of themed issues:

1.   150-300 journal pages, containing typically 12-20 research articles headed by a general review.
2.   Organized by one or more leading international scientists, as the guest editors.

Please send a proposal as a one-page summary. This must justify the topic, and list possible papers and authors. If approved, organizers must next provide a definitive list of agreed contributors and their articles. Organizers must have all articles peer-reviewed, to the satisfaction of the Editorial Committee.

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