A Special Issue is a collection of articles that concentrates on a topical research area within the scope of a journal. All Special Issues published are reviewed and approved by members of the journal's Editorial Board. These Issues provide a venue for research on emerging areas, highlight important subdisciplines, or describe new cross-disciplinary applications.

The following sections explain the benefits and responsibilities of running a Special Issue as a Guest Editor, and the benefits of submitting your manuscript to a Special Issue as an author.

Benefits of being a Guest Editor

To ensure an impartial review process, submissions to the Special Issue by the Guest Editors will be handled by members of the journal’s Editorial Board. Please see this section for more information.

In recognition of the Guest Editors’ efforts, and to provide full transparency about the journal’s review process, the name of the Guest Editor who accepts a manuscript will be included in the published version of the article.

Additional benefits of being a Guest Editor include:

• Improving your academic profile and marking you out as influential within your discipline
• Increasing the visibility and impact of work published in the Special Issue
• Being at the forefront of scientific communication
• Exerting creativity in the inception and development of a topic
• Assembling and working with a strong team of Editors
• Networking with like-minded colleagues around the world and forging new contacts with field leaders
• Handling manuscripts close to your professional interests and gaining a better understanding of editorial processes
• Seeing articles from your Special Issue referenced and cited in future articles
• Feeling you have contributed to the development of the journal